The Ultimate Apollo Guidance Computer Talk

steven at malikoff.com steven at malikoff.com
Tue Sep 18 22:44:56 CDT 2018


Cory said
> Liam, thanks for posting this. What a wonderful way to waste an hour. ; )
>
> I can also highly recommend the book 'Digital Apollo', which goes into some detail about the man-machine interface of the AGC and the internal debate at the time of the role of man as "spacecraft pilot". -C
>
>
> On Sep 18, 2018, at 12:28 PM, Liam Proven via cctalk wrote:
>
>> Amazingly detailed 1hr talk about the Apollo Guidance Computer. It's
>> stunning how much they got into mid-1960s technology: 1 MHz hand-made
>> processor, 1 k of RAM, 4 k of ROM, and bank-switching, with a
>> fault-tolerant multitasking OS with an interpreted metalanguage.
>> Absolutely stunning.
>>
>> https://media.ccc.de/v/34c3-9064-the_ultimate_apollo_guidance_computer_talk


Haven't watched this video yet but am keen to do so as "ultimate" is a bold claim to make.

For my birthday recently I received 'SUNBURST AND LUMINARY: an Apollo Memoir' by Don Eyles.
http://www.sunburstandluminary.com/SLhome.html

I've only read a few chapters so far but it is a fascinating new (2018) account of how the AGC
software came about, and his part in it such as writing the P63 and P64 programs for the powered
descent to the lunar surface.
I've not got the Digital Apollo nor any other books on the AGC but if I had my druthers I would
wish to get the one by Eldon Hall, however it is a rather unusually expensive paperback so that
will have to wait.

Steve.



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