It may be the final frontier, but that doesn’t mean we’re using bleeding edge technology.
[The International Space Station’s] 44 primary computers that do everything from guide the station around Earth at 17,000 mph to monitor for fires are powered by Intel 386 processors, first built in the mid-1980s, with a clock rate of 16 megahertz. To put that in perspective, today’s processors are measured in gigahertz, a speed increase by a factor of 1,000.
Needless to say, the task of maintaining the network of computers on the station humming along is more difficult than, say, putting together a home network.
I suppose it isn’t exactly a trivial matter to do upgrades on it. Funny how this sort of thing was never a problem on Star Trek – “Open a channel, Lt. Uhura.” “I can’t, Captain, their version of Skype is totally incompatible with ours.” Gives me hope that we’ll get this problem licked one of these days.
Another problem? Maintenance and upgrades of this nature aren’t sexy or exceptionally PR-friendly. They’re like sewer and sidewalk repair; important but dull.
Government agencies are notorious for using older technology than private industry.