vacuum-safe laptops ?

[Major Variola (ret)]

At 04:03 AM 7/17/04 +0200, Thomas Shaddack wrote:
>On Fri, 16 Jul 2004, Major Variola (ret) wrote:

>> Sorry so late ---but your can-shaped capacitors might not handle the
>> rapid depressurization so well.
>
>Perhaps it's time to challenge the introductory assumption. Why a
laptop?
>There are many various embedded computers available on the market, eg.
the
>one from <http://www.gumstix.com/>.

Um, even the small form factor PC on a board the size of your palm
may still rely on caps in the power supply that don't handle 760 to 0
mm Hg/min so readily.  Otherwise, there are many small PCs on a card if
you
look into the embedded marketplace.  Complete with solid state disks,
etc.
COTS.

Power dissipation is not a problem if you use a CPU like Via's and
have a nice radiative heatsink.  Or dick with Peltier-effect junctions
at the expense of watts.

ARM's edge is low power, but you may not want to run Linux or BSD or a
RTOS,
perhaps anon actually wants to run M$ in a low pressure environ.
Perhaps that's why he's anonymous :-)

My guess is regular ole airplane takeoff, but its not quite 0 torr
at 35Kfeet, and I *think* the cargo part is pressurized, lest
Fido suffocate.

And while a SAM would be a great science fair
project, you don't go above that limit.  Perhaps anon will
be a space tourist, wanting to take notes, on something heavier
than a PDA+keyboard.

I once TA'd at a UC, one advanced ugrad had a project for an atmospheric

science prof building a board for the nose of a spyplane, to sample
the air.  (For ozone, not nucleotides.  No, really.)
He was interested in vibration problems; I told him to take
his proto board on an offroad trip in his car to shake out the moths.

Am not sure that epoxy cover makes a difference, the board manuf.
go to lengths to avoid air pockets under traces, the ICs themselves
fairly (albeit not guaranteed) encapsulated in an epoxy mix.

We-all being scientists, I'd suggest looking up with the vacuum
hobbyists do with fridge pumps, etc, and doing a bit of testing.
I've even seen using a CRT as a vacuum source, break the glass
neck and shazaam, a few litres of hard vacuum.

--------
Got Kalman filtering?