Originally Posted by
jimjim1
Do these computers have hardware memory protection such that one "process" cannot interfere with another? I suspect that they will not have such protection but I am not sure. I read somewhere that they were 80286 based . The 286 does not have integrated hardware memory protection although I suspect that an addition Memory Management Unit might be able to provide it.
With the caveat that I have no inside knowledge of Boeing's programs and so could be talking though my hat, I would be surprised if there were anything as complex as a 'process' in this control system. Even the most simple and minimal operating system introduces a heck of a lot of unnecessary complexity. It is likely that everything runs in the same memory space (especially if it is a 286) and looks like one large interrupt driven program. They probably have some sort of minimal 'frame' so they can compile together the various developer's work, but it is probably quite small and simple compared to the millions of lines of code (literally) that you will see in an operating system.