EMP (Electromagnetic Pulse) Sun Flares and HP's

[knife31]

Had a thought.
I'm a retired Army Helicopter Instructor Pilot and a retired Government Service Employee running flight simulators for the Army and every now and then they would crash. Maintenance said that that's just what Simulators do, (They run on an army of Dell computers), and as the sims are not EMP (Electromagnetic Pulse) protected I started looking in to Space Weather to see if there was a correlation between Sunspot activity and the crashes. I wonder if an HP suffers from this phenomenon. Never did finds out as I retired and most of my co-workers thought I was nuts. Have included the NOAA page on Space Weather.
Randy

https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/

[AnnoyedOne]

IMO unless properly shielded (e.g. for EMP) anything electrical/electronic is subject to solar flare (sunspot) activity.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrington_Event

Cosmic rays can also affect electronics but the Earths magnetic field deflects most of those. That said random effects can and do happen.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmic_ray...lectronics

A1

[Ren]

I'm going a bit out on a limb here...
But, I recently read (somewhere) that items that are not plugged in to the wall, are more immune.
It will be the power lines that will absorb a lot of Electro-Magnetic radiation and pass it down.
Depending on the strength of the pulse, motors and transformers may not be affected either.
But an electronic device plugged into the grid could get zapped by the pulse coming down the line.
If anyone is worried about their HP calculator collection (Collection? No, we don't collect, we need all of the ones we have for various purposes! B^) ) they could store them in a metal container, and seal the opening with metal adhesive tape. I have a couple of metal garbage cans (remember those?) lined inside with corrugated cardboard (to keep the contents from touching the metal sides) where I keep some spare electronics (e.g. DVD/VHS players, ham radios, power supplies, voltmeters, integrated circuits; etc.) in case the "balloon goes up!".

Our house also has a Siemens arrestor across where the power line enters the house.
https://gagthesurge.com/siemens-fs140-review/

One could even store small electronics in the small metal cans that Christmas cookies or fruitcakes come in.

[AnnoyedOne]

(09-14-2024 06:09 PM)Ren Wrote:  But, I recently read (somewhere) that items that are not plugged in to the wall, are more immune.

True. Depends on the size of the electromagnetic event though. Big enough and *zap*.

(09-14-2024 06:09 PM)Ren Wrote:  (Collection? No, we don't collect, we need all of the ones we have for various purposes! B^)

Yeah. And denial (The Nile) is just a river in Egypt.

(09-14-2024 06:09 PM)Ren Wrote:  I have a couple of metal garbage cans (remember those?) lined inside with corrugated cardboard (to keep the contents from touching the metal sides) where I keep some spare electronics...

I use a number of paint can sized tin cans but the same idea. Which reminds me I should "ground" those.

A1

[dm319]

(09-14-2024 04:15 PM)AnnoyedOne Wrote:  Cosmic rays can also affect electronics but the Earths magnetic field deflects most of those. That said random effects can and do happen

Isn't that what ECC was developed for?

"Extensive background radiation studies by IBM in the 1990s suggest that computers typically experience about one cosmic-ray-induced error per 256 megabytes of RAM per month. If so, a superstorm, with its unprecedented radiation fluxes, could cause widespread computer failures. For­tun­ately, in such instances most users could simply reboot."

http://www.scientificamerican.com/articl...ast-facts/

[AnnoyedOne]

(09-14-2024 06:31 PM)dm319 Wrote:  Isn't that what ECC was developed for?

Mostly yes. Correct any random errors. Not foolproof though.

In space stuff has shielding as well. Also affects humans BTW. Some think cancer may result from DNA being affected by cosmic rays.

A1

[Bikeman]

If anything, some of the early HP computers and calculators would be less vulnerable to errors from radiation than modern computers because a) they use much larger structures in their chips and b) some of those products used a semiconductor process known as "Silicon-on-Sapphiire" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silicon_on_sapphire that is generally more resilient against radiation than modern CMOS alternatives.

See also https://www.hpmuseum.org/forum/archive/i...-5853.html

For a very deep dive into the subject: http://www.righto.com/2023/12/HP-silicon...-chip.html