There was an effort to develop a real-time Puppy a few years ago. What happened with it?Each of SpaceX's monthly launches of 60 internet-beaming Starlink satellites carries 4,000 stripped-back Linux computers, SpaceX software engineers have revealed.
The company plans to launch a public beta of the satellite internet service by the end of the northern hemisphere's summer and has won approval to deploy one million end-user terminals in the US.
Sulkin revealed that the Linux computers run with the PREEMPT_RT patch, which is developed by a Red Hat engineer as part of an initiative to make Linux a real-time operating system.
...SpaceX cybersecurity boss Dexter said any students aspiring to work at the company should make Linux a central part of their education.
"Get your CS degree (or something) similar," said Dexter. "Spend time to really make sure you know how things work – engineers who do well at SpaceX are meticulous in their understanding of how their code works, how the network works, how Linux works, how the hardware works, etc. Get real-world experience building things and solving hard problems, either through hobby projects or in internships (at SpaceX)."
...As the Starlink satellite broadband service moves from a test to operational phase in coming months, security is going to become a critical issue for SpaceX. Moran offered some insight into the issues that SpaceX engineers are looking out for, from the satellites to gateways and the 'UFO-on-a-stick' end-user terminals located at households.
"We designed the system to use end-to-end encryption for our users' data, to make breaking into a satellite or gateway less useful to an attacker who wants to intercept communications," wrote Moran.
"Every piece of hardware in our system (satellites, gateways, user terminals) is designed to only run software signed by us, so that even if an attacker breaks in, they won't be able to gain a permanent foothold.
"And then we harden the insides of the system (including services in our data centers) to make it harder for an exploited vulnerability in one area to be leveraged somewhere else. We're continuing to work hard to ensure our overall system is properly hardened, and still have a lot of work ahead of us (we're hiring), but it's something we take very seriously."
