An interesting article about the hardware used on the Mars Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity:

At the nerve center of each MER rover is a 6-by 9-inch electronics board containing one computer responsible for every process that goes into a mission, whether it be monitoring spacecraft health in transit, deploying parachutes during landing or roving about the red planet. The computer, called a RAD6000, is a tried and true component for NASA space mission that has formed the brains of past Mars missions in the, as well as the recent Stardust comet encounter.

Obviously, the hardware is not powerful, but it shows that it’s best to rely on what works rather than what is the latest and greatest. I have to admit, this whole Mars rover thing makes me want to get into embedded type programming. But, I probably would have to use Assembly Language or C… no thanks.