SpaceX skipped the $10,000 radiation-hardened chips that traditional aerospace has used for decades and put over a million consumer-grade Linux computers into orbit on Starlink satellites, and it worked. Consumer chips have their own flaws, though: Linux developers blame buggy Intel and AMD chips for crashes. Alex and Brian from Speedify break down how Starlink runs real-time Linux on commercial silicon on their low-earth orbit satellite constellation, why running three computers per satellite protects them from cosmic-ray bit flips, how weekly software updates roll out to Starlink satellites moving at 17,000 mph without bricking the fleet, and the clever GPL license workaround that lets SpaceX keep its Starlink source code private.
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