
Schlumberger is building a proprietary OS for its oilfield services - carlsborg
http://fortune.com/2015/09/08/big-oil-schlumberger/
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Cyph0n
I interned there last year. They use a Windows 7 image that is preloaded with
drilling software built in-house. Most of the newer software seemed to be
written in .NET.

They have some really awesome tech, especially from an electronics point of
view. Some of their newer MWD (measurement while drilling) tools have state of
the art sensors for every physical phenomenon known to man. The drilling
operator can therefore "see" everything. The electronics systems that go
downhole can withstand insane temperatures (125C), shocks, and RPM.

~~~
ejanus
I left SLB few months ago , and during my stay there I was exposed to most of
their MWD tools. I worked both in the maintenance and field engineering
organization. Please note that all MWD(D&M) tools are expected to withstand
150 degC however some high temperature tools could get up to 170 degC. But
this is just industry standard (Baker, Halliburton, and others have
such).Their electronics technology has been around for decades, however SLB
started off(recently) making incremental improvement and at same time
incorporating new technologies. Please don't use the word "see" because there
is nothing radical here or new. MWD tools are just sensors.. magnetometers,
accelerators, strain gauges , FPGA and some basic electronics power system. In
some cases you may have transmitters and receivers oriented to a particular
frequency range. MWD tools have sensors in the same family as what we have in
a smart phone.

~~~
Cyph0n
How about density, porosity, resistivity, and so on? I saw some LWD tools that
used different sonic-based techniques, nuclear sources, and others for
formation evaluation. I'm thinking of the PeriScope, EcoScope from LWD, and
the TeleScope from MWD. The point-the-bit tech in the Xceed is also amazing!

I didn't get to read up on the details, as they prevented interns from
accessing technical documents, but from what I saw some of the sensors were
quite advanced. Granted, I don't have that much exposure to state of the art
sensor tech, so I could be wrong.

~~~
ejanus
I wont like to discuss SLB technology here because that is the duty of their
salesmen, however I will pick on "point-the-bit tech in the Xceed" technology
to illustrate a bit. Xceed is modeled after an MWD tool called
PowerPulse(TeleScope predecessor), it copied about 90% of that technology.
However to the uninitiated it may look like something from the outer space. It
has resolver(motor), that means you have angular position, and throw in
magnetometers, accelerators , and sensors into the play. Presto!

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omouse
Here's the wording about the OS:

 _This new operating system will be able to analyze everything happening on a
rig in real time, boosting both efficiency and safety. It also serves to lock
customers into a single ecosystem that the company hopes will act as an
incentive to use Schlumberger services and (now) equipment for all their
drilling needs._

So their requirement is real-time. Their real requirement though is vendor
lock-in. They're really just looking for a way to lock companies into their
platform so that the cost of switching is prohibitive. That's a way of
decreasing safety and efficiency. I think the real-time requirement is just a
cover for them to increase their customer retention through the worst way
possible.

Offering a little "extra" to the client in the form of lock-in is despicable.

 _Old-school operators in the energy space are all about going with “the best
in breed” equipment and service providers. They have deep relationships with
salesmen in certain companies and tend to be very loyal to them, so it will be
hard to sell many of them on the idea of buying from just one source._

Oh I see, they're exchanging gifts at different levels and if you lock
yourself into one vendor you won't be able to get a wide variety of gifts for
closing a sale.

I wonder how "best of breed" is measured, if it's measured at all or if it's
just based on marketing and sales brochures.

~~~
ejanus
There is nothing new here ..... They already have the technology but
fragmented .. They have been streaming real-time data to clients and their
support centers for over a decade now. Now they want to package all that as
one... pretty business strategy. But I guess they would not fool anyone.

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jonawesomegreen
I wonder if this is an operating system, or what a laymen would potentially
call an operating system, maybe some sort of full screen application. I would
guess the latter.

~~~
davidgerard
The way it actually worked in 2004, I would be amazed were it any different
now:

* it's a complicated vertical market with _buckets of cash_

* there are two main providers, Landmark and Schlumberger

* you buy most of your stuff from one or the other

* the software, at $10k/seat/year, is the _second cheapest_ part, the cheapest being the beefy box with top-of-the-line 3D graphics to run it on. the highly-paid geologist or petrochemist or whatever to sit there running it is the third-cheapest part.

* the software is unbelievably shoddy for how much money goes into it. X applications in 2004 that would refuse to run in 24-bit, demanding you restart in 8-bit, that sort of thing. Hence my rule of thumb that "software quality is inversely proportional to ticket price."

* OH MY GOD THERE IS SO MUCH MONEY SLOSHING AROUND. So it was nice to sysadmin somewhere that would just spend money to do stuff properly.

* I daily wanted to stab FlexLM in the face. And it's the least-worst option on dongleware.

So maintaining their own complicated system of stuff that runs on Windows 7 is
already what they do, and is relatively cheap compared to how much money is in
the vertical.

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eggy
They could go with Lisp :)

Ada or ATS-Lang would be good for such mission-critical applications with
various modules needing to keep it safe. The DoD and aerospace already use Ada
for such purposes. Just please don't use C! (Maybe BitC, but too immature).
Then run Erlang (Elixir or LFE - Lisp Flavored Erlang) on top of the OS for
distributed computing, robustness, hot-swapping, and all else where Erlang
excels.

~~~
eggy
What's wrong with the suggestion of Ada or ATS-Lang? Lisp was used on space
missions. Relatively new to the whole karma, upvote and downvote on HN. I
would like a rational reason on why this was downvoted to better understand
what was off about my reply.

~~~
JupiterMoon
HN in general does not appreciate comments that can be construed (or miss-
construed) as language fanboyism. Bear in mind that when using written
communication the onus is on the writer to convey their meaning accurately.

~~~
eggy
Thanks for taking the time to try and explain. Given I mentioned 4 languages
with different reasons also puts some onus on the reader to have an aptitude
for comprehension as well. How can 4 languages be fanboyism? I will, however,
bear this in mind, although, it does come across as a little pretentious or
guarded on the downvoter's side.

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TickleSteve
the phrase "Operating System" here is being used in the sense of "software to
manage resources"... _not_ the resources of the computer, but the resources of
the whole system. It is not referring to a replacement for Linux, Windows,
VxWorks or uCOS, rather incorporating individual subsystems running those OSs
into a whole oilfield-management-system.

------
NickHaflinger
“It is similar to an operating system used on your mobile phone,”

Well that's the technical bits out of the way :)

------
topbanana
We already know that software doesn't need to be run on the same OS in order
to work together.

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1971genocide
Whats wrong with just helping Linux ?

I always find it funny when people try to create "proprietary" stuff in 2015 -
its like people learnt nothing from windows.

I remember reading about how investment bankers tried to create their own
language and it looked like a crude version of C.

Its not easy to compete with open source. You just cannot spend 1 billion
dollars making an OS. Who is going to fix bugs for the next 20 years ?

~~~
Sanddancer
For one, Linux isn't an RTOS and never will be. The many rejections of real-
time patches into the Linux kernel tree have shown that the kernel devs favor
performance to precision, so it would be a fool's errand to try once again to
push a real-time patch just to get it patched. At which point, you'll end up
having to do a lot of your own OS development anyways to backport kernel
features you need. There are quite a few situations where Linux will delay
interrupts for milliseconds, and quite a few situations where milliseconds can
mean millions of dollars.

For your last question, 20 years of support will certainly not Linux
developers. While MS offers extended support for Windows XP, neither earth nor
the heavens will make Red Hat provide extended support for RHEL 3. The Open
Source world has a lot to learn from proprietary companies about support
still.

~~~
testrun
According to Cyph0n, they are using a Windows 7 image, which is also not a
RTOS. Can just as well use Linux in this case.

~~~
JupiterMoon
If they are writing their software using .NET then windows would seem to be
obvious choice (for now).

~~~
testrun
True, although mono might be an option.

