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My company builds and integrates full-visual flight simulators for both government and commercial customers. The total product life cycle in the majority of cases reflects the aircraft on which the flight simulator is based. For supportability, we determine the life cycle of the simulator itself to be composed of life cycles of the various components and actively track component obsolescence. The component that causes the most difficulty is that of the computer, at the heart of which is the microprocessor and the video-rendering chip; each with a life cycle of their own. In choosing the right microprocessor and associated operating system, we do not specifically look at the phase of the product life cycle it is in, we are more concerned with the products ability to perform the flight simulation task and ultimate maintainability/supportability (obsolescence) once our product is sold to the customer. ... We seek components that are very early growth to maturity stage, since the life cycle of a microprocessor is short -- approximately 18 months. In the case of the video-rendering system, the life cycle is even shorter (8 to 12 months). It takes my company 24 to 36 months to develop and field a flight simulator. In some cases, we need to make agreements with vendors that they will support a product beyond its life cycle. Therefore, our product (flight simulators), which uses the products in question (microprocessors and video rendering systems), depends on availability and supportability of the product, rather than where the product is in its life cycle.
This paper will show that the microprocessor that is at the heart of a flight simulator is an 18-month life cycle and that the video rendering chips are an 8 to 12 month cycle. These life cycles drives cost, value and price in the supportability of fielded flight simulators. Consequently, it is difficult to defend where our product, a flight simulator, lies within its life cycle. There becomes a point where the number of obsolete components begin driving supportability costs to the point that it is less expensive to replace the flight simulator than to try to upgrade it.
Approximate Word count = 1734
Approximate Pages = 6.9
(250 words per page double spaced)
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