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Aihnss.658 net.columbia utzoo!decvax!ucbvax!ARPAVAX:mhtsa!ihnss!karn Thu Dec 10 15:55:42 1981 Shuttle Spill AP Mon 10-26-81 1100 Software Spill Endangers Shuttle Launch Date

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla-- Technicians are still assessing the damage caused by a mishap that occurred while loading over 128,000 bytes of highly volatile software into the Columbia's five computers. Several dozen silicon integrated circuits were reported to have fallen off the circuit boards after the RS-232 connector in the download cable popped loose and spilled sseveral thousand words of code, including reverse-GOTOs, down the RAM boards.

"It really ate the RTV bonding off those ICs," said spokesman Ed Dikes. "Those circuits were laid out by Computer Science PhD types to handle high-level structured programs, and when those GOTOs hit them, they just fell right off the circuit boards." Software engineers at the Cape are at a loss to explain how the GOTOs got into the code. According to Dikes, current speculation is that the deadly bugs developed while the software was sitting in storage on the disk packs for several months.

Plans call for installation of a UNIX "final filter" in the download driver to block out the corrosive bytes. Meanwhile, technicians are cleaning the tacky ill-structured GOTO statements off the deflowered silicon chips, preparatory to bonding them back to the substrate. "Hopefully, we can brainwash the RAM chips into forgetting they ever heard any of that BASIC schlock," said Dikes.

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