the "FIRST PC" - How about the computer on the Lunar Module? - test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

28 Apr 1999

Really!  The original "Lunar Lander" game . . .

I often marvel at how they manage these decade-long development cycles.
Imagine the apparent lunacy of launching a 10-year-old design just because
it takes that long to integrate, manufacture, and test it.

The simulator must have been written in Threetran . . .

Dick

-----Original Message-----
From: John Lewczyk &lt;jlewczyk(a)his.com&gt;
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
&lt;classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu&gt;
Date: Wednesday, April 28, 1999 10:26 PM
Subject: Re: the "FIRST PC" - How about the computer on the Lunar Module?

...
 I was watching the show on the history of computers on
the Discovery channel
...
 and they talked about the computer on the Lunar Module
that landed on the
moon.  It had 5000 integrated circuits in it and was quite the marvel for
its time.  Could this be a candidate for the first Personal Computer?  They
were kinda pricey! ;-)

Does anybody have any information on that cpu - word size, instruction set,
memory, control panel, etc?  Who manuafactured it?  Where can one go and see
...
 it (without going to the moon!)  How about the software
for it?

An simulator for one would be pretty cool to see, especially if it was
running the program that they used to land on the moon!