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I know you are being facetious, but I doubt anyone under the age of 70 would even begin to know how to operate any of that equipment.That’s some archaic stuff. Even a caveman can use it.
Your dishwasher has more brain power than the computer that flew the Apollo astronauts to the Moon. But don’t let your dishwasher take control of your spaceship anytime soon. That’s not a measure of how basic the Apollo computers were, but rather how much the engineers and programmers in the 1960s were able to do with the modest computing power that was available to them.
“From my own perspective, the software experience itself (designing it, developing it, evolving it, watching it perform and learning from it for future systems) was at least as exciting as the events surrounding the mission. … There was no second chance. We knew that. We took our work seriously, many of us beginning this journey while still in our 20s. Coming up with solutions and new ideas was an adventure. Dedication and commitment were a given. Mutual respect was across the board. Because software was a mystery, a black box, upper management gave us total freedom and trust. We had to find a way and we did. Looking back, we were the luckiest people in the world; there was no choice but to be pioneers.”
Yep, they are all using 8" floppy diskette drives - those were considered old and legacy in the early 1980s, and were phased out completely in the world by the late 1980s.edit - also don't think too hard about the computers that control our nuclear missile arsenal... all ancient and some using floppy disks. But hey at least they can't be hacked, we hope.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12043206
The Kalman Filter was used the in the Apollo 11 Guidance Computer [0] (discussed in the past on HN [1]).As someone linked previously, here is a historical perspective [2], and a link to the actual state vector update computations [3].The AGC maintained the state vectors for t...
Yep, they are all using 8" floppy diskette drives - those were considered old and legacy in the early 1980s, and were phased out completely in the world by the late 1980s.
They also utilize 24v lines instead of 12v lines due to the large motors required to spin up the diskette.
I'm really impressed much of that equipment was still in use into the mid-1990s.When I worked at Ft. Huachuca in the early 90’s, we actually still had some Sperry Univac hardware in the software development lab that used 8” floppies. Of course, we also had the archaic removable hard drive cabinets and platters as well and 9 track tapes to content with too, so I guess it shouldn’t be surprising that 8” FDDs were still a thing there. Looked like the old NASA data control centers from the 70’s. Left in ‘94 and never looked back.
I'm really impressed much of that equipment was still in use into the mid-1990s.
Did you have a chance to work first-hand with any of that equipment at all?
Since we're on the topic, you all might appreciate a few of these systems as well from our past!
I can't recommend LGR's channel enough.
Asshole post. We have a modern feature called "ignore" for such situations.Double post. We have a modern feature called "edit" for such situations.
Asshole post. We have a modern feature called "ignore" for such situations.
This story appeared recently in Fast Company as part of a series they are running on the moon landing. Sometimes it's good to revisit technology milestones to appreciate just what we have today.
I didn't have a question, I know what you are saying, and your post was a complete waste of everyone's time here since you contributed absolutely nothing to this thread.Actually take the time to read my post and your question will be answered.
I didn't have a question, I know what you are saying, and your post was a complete waste of everyone's time here since you contributed absolutely nothing to this thread.
You aren't a mod, so next time, please keep your shit posts to yourself.
Grow up a little and quit whining constantly.
I always enjoy reading about old tech like this, it helps illustrate how far tech has come when you read about all of the limitations they had to overcome back then.
It's interesting to read that they allowed the programmers so much trust and freedom to do what needed to be done given how careful they are these days for fear of introducing hardware or software bugs. I guess since there was no older stuff to fall back on they just had to hope no errors made it through.
They had system design by more than just a single person, test setups to evaluate the completed systems, and code reviews, just like we do today. See here:
http://www.drdobbs.com/architecture-and-design/one-giant-leap-the-apollo-guidance-compu/184404139
The reason you think it was just one engineer is because that's all they write the stories about. It was an effort that took hundreds of people to accomplish, even if the brains running the thing were fewer in number.
Computers had already been sold by IBM for fifteen years Software Process had been pretty much defined in-stone, even if it was mostly led by a few rockstars.
I wasn't trying to say I thought it was one engineer and I'm sure they still had a strict review process but I was referring to this quote above: "Because software was a mystery, a black box, upper management gave us total freedom and trust." These days NASA has a lot of bureaucratic hurdles for any new hardware and software, trust is not in their vocabulary.
The reason they had to have total trust is because the algorithms were all new. You can't be choosy when there's only one algorithm that does the job, coded by this one person.
Once you leap over as many hurdles as Nasa has (50 years of them), you have enough experience to fear change, and think you know everything.
But that's not to say that, just because they depended on rockstars that there was no reviews. They're just saying that "compared to NASA of today, they were total on our side."
Margaret Hamilton
Again, credit where credit is due!
Her Apollo 11 code is also publicly available on GitHub:
]
I wasn't trying to say I thought it was one engineer and I'm sure they still had a strict review process but I was referring to this quote above: "Because software was a mystery, a black box, upper management gave us total freedom and trust." These days NASA has a lot of bureaucratic hurdles for any new hardware and software, trust is not in their vocabulary.
When I worked at Ft. Huachuca in the early 90’s, we actually still had some Sperry Univac hardware in the software development lab that used 8” floppies. Of course, we also had the archaic removable hard drive cabinets and platters as well and 9 track tapes to content with too, so I guess it shouldn’t be surprising that 8” FDDs were still a thing there. Looked like the old NASA data control centers from the 70’s. Left in ‘94 and never looked back.
Kind of says something about the level of computing power that is actually needed for space missions, which really is not much. Hell most of the stuff in space is clunky old mostly because it's clunky durable they want it to keep working for years and years.I had a high school teacher in like 1990 that went on and on about how his Casio digital calculator watch had more horsepower and memory than the stuff they used for the Apollo missions. Actually kinda scary if you stop to think about it... so don't.
edit - also don't think too hard about the computers that control our nuclear missile arsenal... all ancient and some using floppy disks. But hey at least they can't be hacked, we hope.
... like some scary alien AI shit going to work.