Submitted via IRC for AnonymousLuser
The machine that made the Moon missions possible
We've all been there: you're working on something important, your PC crashes, and you lose all your progress.
Such a failure was not an option during the Apollo missions, the first time ever that a computer was entrusted with handling flight control and life support systems—and therefore the lives of the astronauts on board.
Despite an infamous false alarm during lunar descent that sent Commander Neil Armstrong's heart rate racing, it was a resounding success that laid the groundwork for everything from modern avionics to multitasking operating systems.
Here are some of the ways the Apollo Guidance Computer (AGC), millions of times less powerful than a 2019 smartphone, shaped the world we live in today:
- Microchip revolution
- Multitasking
- Real-time input
- Passing the test
(Score: 5, Insightful) by DannyB on Wednesday July 17 2019, @05:08PM
Even the ground based equipment, rooms full of computers. Computers that had generally well under a megabyte of memory. And rooms of disk packs that all combined would fit on a modern USB stick on your keychain.
It was amazing how much they did with what we consider to be so little.
And then came Microsoft. Showing how little could be done no matter how much computer resources you give it. Personally, I can say that Windows Server 2016 is astonishing in this respect compared to Windows Server 2012, compared to Windows Server 2008r2.
People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.