Cosmic rays are affecting the malfunction of computers and smartphones

ByNASA Goddard Space Flight Center

PC crash and freezing of smartphone are not necessarily caused only by defects of hardware and software, and we can not do anything"Cosmic rays"Impact ofHas been pointed out. This problem is big, but it has not come to be understood quite generally.

Computer crashes may be due to forces beyond our solar system | Computerworld
http://www.computerworld.com/article/3171677/it-industry/computer-crash-may-be-due-to-forces-beyond-our-solar-system.html


The Invisible Neutron Threat | National Security Science Magazine | Los Alamos National Laboratory
https://www.lanl.gov/science/NSS/issue1_2012/story4full.shtml

Cosmic rays, which are high-energy radiation flying over the universe, are falling on the earth every day. Even though it is harmless to the human body and living things, there are particles with enough energy to influence the operation of the microelectronic circuit.

In the military, aeronautical and computer industries, it has been known for over 20 years that an error called single event upset (SEU) is caused by atmospheric high energy neutrons.

The intensity of neutrons increases in proportion to the altitude in the atmosphere and increases the frequency of SEU occurrence. Transport aircraft carrying over 100 people and flew over 11,000 meters above the Sea of ​​Japan.C-141 BThen, the situation that the aircraft suddenly leaned to the right by SEU occurred. The aircraft was about to get out of control unintentionally, but as the pilot soon noticed the situation, it did not become a serious accident.

ByRobert Sullivan

From Qantas' Bath to Singapore, at the altitude of 11,000 mAirbus A330-303One of the aerospace data inertial reference units failed and erroneous data was sent to the flight control unit. As a result, the aircraft suddenly lowered its altitude, 110 out of 303 passengers and nine out of 12 occupants injured. A cabin attendant who did not fix the body was hit on the ceiling. The accident was concluded by the Australian Traffic Safety Commission that there was no evidence that it would be considered "due to SEU", "there is insufficient evidence to estimate the possibility that SEU is caused," except SEU It has been found that all potential causes are "unlikely to occur" or "very unlikely".

Los Alamos National Laboratories recently pointed out that increasing the number of microchip-based terminals in the air has increased concern. For example, in order to grasp the whole picture of the Northern Hemisphere, the US Army seems to be flying a military aircraft over the North Pole over 18 km, but the neutron intensity at this point is about 2000 times as high as the sea level. The SEU rate per microchip of the latest device has increased rapidly in the past 5 years.

Even in non-military use, in electronic balloting held at Scarbaker in Belgium in 2003, there is a mistake that a candidate received an additional vote of "4096 votes". However, there is a reality that SEU is not generally understood generally, and semiconductor makers continue to make efforts to prevent the interference of cosmic rays, but it seems that they have not reached the fundamental measures.