Extremely geeky video about making the Apollo Guidance Computer

[Beowolf]

In one of the hard-core geekiest videos I've ever seen, an MIT professor takes us through the manufacture of the Apollo Guidance Computer. The first 10 minutes is just a demo of how it navigates, but the rest shows the actual machines, workstations, processes and people who hand-made things like the plated-wire ROM memory. Dry stuff, but if you're a tech-history fanatic like me, well worth the time.

[viccie211]

It's weird to see how it's operated, now it would all be done with gui's and probably commandlines too, but only typing in numbers and then having to remember what those numbers mean? It really puts in perspecitve that your smartphone is thousands of times better of a computer than that piece of ancient technology.

[rdfox]

There's a reason that the astronauts had quick-reference cards for what the Verb and Noun numbers were. And why, when they weren't doing routine procedures that were written out in the checklists, the exact sequence of keystrokes required were worked out on the ground, then transmitted up to the crew to transcribe, then the crew would read them back to the ground to verify that they had transcribed the correct sequence, and then corrections would be sent up, then the crew would read back the corrected sequence, etc. etc., until it was confirmed that they had the correct sequence of keystrokes written down. Yes, it was an awkward procedure that was hated by the crews. Yes, there were originally plans to include a teletype on the Apollo spacecraft for sending such strings of numbers and keystrokes without the chance of transcription error by the crew (this was deleted for weight reasons). Yes, this is why the Shuttle originally flew with a teletype, and why it was later refitted with a fax machine (same purpose, but broader capabilities for less weight), and why the ISS has a printer on board to print out emails from Mission Control.

And yes, this IS the same procedure used for instrument flight clearances to this very day in the aviation world...

[mrfox]

It might not be intuitive, but as a piece of minimalist engineering it was art at its finest - and its simplicity was absolutely necessary, given the weight and computing limitations of its time. Not to mention this sort of keyboard interface was at its infancy at the time - most computers were still switch/punchcard driven when this was designed. Its interface is actually pretty damn logical in comparasion.