Temasek Engineering School, Singapore

Hello World,

The 1960s was a breakthrough for the electronic industry when the Microchip was invented. However this even more important as man could not go to the moon or land on it simply by manual…that will exhaust them throughout the 8 day journey back and forth.

Those days of vacuum tubes and the early microchip, a computer of mere memory of less than a megabyte would fill up 1/4 of a soccer field. The Apollo Spacecraft’s command module, where the astronauts pilot and sleep was equivalent to the size of a 3 men tent was where the Apollo Guidance Computer (AGC) was installed. This was capable of auto-piloting the spacecraft.

For those in Temasek Polytechnic’s Aerospace Course, they will know that there are many physics involved in properly maintain a aircraft like alttitude, gimbal, angle, etc and that will involve a lot of mathematics.

The AGC was created to receive the necessary computer inputs from the user, now the inputs was not words but by 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,0.  So the AGC was like a calculator that not only calculated the arithmetics but also using the calculated values to determine the proper course of action in terms of the spacecraft controls.

GEEZ for something like that in the 60s, thats incredible….

Lets now compare the AGC with our modern day computers (standard or better)

1. Clock-speed ( rate data transfer, higher is faster)

• The AGC had a clock-speed of 2.048 Mhz
• The modern computer’s clock speed on the average of 1.8 Ghz

2. RAM (Random Access Memory; data that is unsaved and is erased upon power cut off)

• The AGC had a RAM of 4 Kb
• The modern computer standard ram is 512 kb

3. ROM (Read-Only Memory; the permanent storage of data like hard disk, cd-rom, floppy)

• The AGC has a ROM of 32 Kb
• The modern computer standard main rom (the hard disk) usually at 20GB

4. Software Language ( the language use to create the system)

• The AGC was programmed by the “Assembly Language”
• The Microsoft Windows is programmed by “BASIC”

5. REGISTERS ( They boost the computers’ execution of data)

• The AGC had a central registers of 16-bits ( Like the old SEGA Megadrive)
• The modern computer CPU registers are now 64-bits

Its interesting, just imagine that your everyday Scientific Calculator, with the proper modifications and connections to hardwares, can be use to auto-pilot and decide for the pilot.

We should not take for granted our everyday technology, that in the past, was so needed to fulfill the greatest adventures of mankind. I will leave with you the some pictures of what the AGC looked like.

The Apollo Guidance Computer (Interface View)….a bit bigger than the hard disk

The Apollo Guidance Computer (Hardware and Interfacne View)

tp4u

Greatings,
everything dynamic and very positively

Thanks
Jinny

Comment by Jinny 4 February, 2009 @ 8:37 pm

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how do you turn a hand held calculator into auto pilot? connections and modifications ?

Comment by alan 12 July, 2009 @ 12:30 am

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