Mil spec computers. Building the hardware to fit the software

Computers are now an essential part of practically every military system; the US Department of Defence alone spends some $6 billion/year on computing projects. Severe problems have, however, been encountered in the production of reliable software for many defence applications, particularly those using `embedded¿ computers built into weapons and communication equipment. To overcome these problems, the US military is pursuing an adventurous programme of standardisation that will ultimately allow the use of only one programming language and one machine architecture