Dissecting an Aircraft's Video Symbol Generator.

Adrian Smith has conducted a teardown of a symbol generator from a British Aerospace 146 airliner, which is used to generate real-time video feeds for cockpit display units. The device contains gold-plated chips, including 54xx series logic, and a main CPU board based on the Intel 8086. The teardown also revealed custom ASICs produced by Honeywell and other special order items. The device is powered by a standard 400 Hz avionics-standard power supply.