Word: avis
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With STAR, controllers should rest easy. Built by a Lithuanian-born J.P.L. engineer named Algirdas Avižienis, 38, the computer consists of ten separate units, each designed to perform a specific function (computation, logic, communications, memory and monitoring). More important, some of the units always stand by as spares. Thus, if any of STAR'S working parts should falter, it can quickly mobilize a replacement...
...really remarkable feature of Avižienis' brainchild is a specially gifted unit dubbed TARP (for Test And Repair Processor). Like a zealous office manager always peering over the shoulders of his clerks, TARP can almost instantly spot errors, determine who has made them, and take steps to discipline or replace the wrongdoer. It constantly monitors the specially coded messages -or interoffice memos, as Avižienis calls them-that pass between the units, and immediately reacts to deviations from normal in the computer chatter. "It's as if a person were to start mispronouncing or slurring words...
...does not react impetuously. Before calling in a standby, it will first give the balky unit a chance to redeem itself by letting it repeat the task. But what if TARP itself is having an off day? Adapting an idea first proposed by the late mathematician John von Neumann, Avižienis divided TARP's brain into three independent lobes. If one lobe detects an error not subsequently confirmed by its two partners, the outvoted lobe will also be dismissed. Later, it may be given another chance. But if it continues to disagree with its partners, they will perform...
...present form, STAR occupies more than 100 cubic feet of space. For the "grand tours," Avižienis hopes to compress it into two cubic feet and reduce its power needs to 50 watts-less than most ordinary light bulbs. Avižienis thinks that such a tiny, trusty brain also might be useful closer to earth: monitoring the guidance systems of supersonic aircraft, controlling high-speed trains, and even standing watch over the vital functions of seriously ill patients in hospital wards...
...around the Jewish homeland. "It is either too early or too late," he said. "Either we should have reacted right away, or we should wait and see what are the results of diplomacy." Since the choice was obviously to wait and see, when the first sirens sounded, most Tel Avi-vians thought it was a drill. A few dutifully ambled to shelters; others merely scanned the cloudless skies and shrugged...