Los Alamos Helps Industry By Simulating Circuit Failures From Cosmic Rays
Los Alamos Simulates Circuit Failures From Cosmic Rays....snip...
We can't fully predict the effect of these interactions, which makes having a standardized way to test circuits extremely valuable" Wender said. "Very similar devices show radically different failure rates due to neutron interactions, and we have some evidence that the smaller transistors and lower operating voltages in newer devices produce higher failure rates....snip....
In the case of the latest, totally computer-controlled aircraft, these tiny cosmic gremlins could cause trouble, especially because the problem gets worse as atmospheric shielding dwindles at higher altitudes. At sea level, the shielding provided by the air is equivalent to more than ten feet of concrete shielding. The neutron flux at LANSCE, 7,000 feet above sea level is approximately three times greater than at sea level; and at 40,000 feet, the cosmic-ray neutron flux is several hundred times greater than the neutron flux seen on the earth's surface....snip...
The Laboratory and NASA recently placed a complete aircraft control system in the LANSCE beam and linked it locally with a computer simulation for a Boeing 737.
A future experiment will examine whether pilots can compensate for control system upsets during simulated flight, by remotely linking a computer undergoing tests in the ICE House to the flight simulator located in the NASA System Airframe Failure Emulation Testing and Integration Laboratory at the Langley Research Center. Los Alamos is collaborating in NASA's development of the SAFETI Laboratory, with networked links to individual NASA labs for aircraft structures, cockpit motion and propulsion systems
"Cosmic rays cause compure downtime" (very technical slideshow)..
http://www.ewh.ieee.org/r6/scv/rl/ar...3-talk-ref.pdf