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Jan 5, 2020 at 3:30 comment added Peter Cordes @forest: Modern embedded systems do still have a watchdog timer that would reboot if the system locked up, instead of just sitting there like a desktop so a user can write down the error code (or notice that it crashed in the first place). But yes, the quote in this answer makes it sound like a primitive garbage-collection scheme. However, the Apollo 11 AGC did have a watchdog timer (they called it the "Nightwatchman" :P, and was one of a few things that could trigger a reboot: How did the Apollo guidance computer handle parity bit errors?)
Jan 4, 2020 at 11:42 comment added forest This seems more like a comment, since there's really no comparison between an ancient computer with magnetic core memory and rope memory and exceptionally limited computing requirements, and a complex modern machine with hundreds of microprocessors with incredibly complex ISAs and millions of lines of code written in multiple programming languages.
Jan 4, 2020 at 1:49 comment added hobbs @Fattie sure it would. Better to do nothing for a moment, then do the right thing, than to do the wrong thing immediately.
Jan 3, 2020 at 17:36 comment added selectstriker2 If an error is detected, it is better in many cases for the system to be inop temporarily while it reboots rather than be stuck in a faulted state.
Jan 3, 2020 at 17:25 comment added Fattie but this would not at all apply to the fly by ethernet controls that operate the actual control surfaces, surely?
Jan 3, 2020 at 14:37 history answered Eugene Styer CC BY-SA 4.0