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The IBM AP-101 is an avionics computer that has been used in the U.S. Space Shuttle, the B-52 and B-1B bombers,〔 and other aircraft. It is a repackaged version of the AP-1 used in the F-15 fighter.〔(Computers in Spaceflight: The NASA Experience - Chapter Four - Computers in the Space Shuttle Avionics System )〕 When it was designed, it was a high-performance pipelined processor with core memory. While its specifications are exceeded by most of the modern microprocessors, it was considered high-performance for its era as it could process 480,000 instructions per second (compared to the 7,000 instructions per second of the computer used on Gemini spacecraft).〔 It remains in service (formerly on the space shuttle) because it works and is flight-certified, whereas a new certification would be too expensive. The Space Shuttle AP-101s were augmented by glass cockpit technology. The AP-101, being the top-of-the-line of the System/4 Pi range, shares its general architecture with the System/360 mainframes.〔(Computers in Spaceflight: The NASA Experience - Chapter Four - Computers in the Space Shuttle Avionics System - The DPS hardware configuration )〕 It has 16 32-bit registers, and uses a microprogram to define an instruction set of 154 instructions. Originally only 16 bits were available for addressing memory; later this was extended with four bits from the program status word register, allowing a directly addressable memory range of 1M locations. The B-1B bomber employed a network of eight model AP-101F computers. The AP-101B originally used in the Shuttle had core memory. The AP-101S upgrade in the early 1990s used semiconductor memory. The space shuttle used five AP-101 computers as "general-purpose computers" (GPCs). Four operate in sync, for redundancy, while the fifth is a backup running software written independently. The shuttle software was written in HAL/S, a special-purpose high-level programming language, whereas AP-101s used by the US Air Force are mostly programmed in JOVIAL, such as the system found on the B-1B Lancer bomber.〔(Jovial to smooth U.S. Air Force shift to Ada. (processing language) )〕 == References == 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「IBM AP-101」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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