MIT Science Reporter-"Computer for Apollo" (1965)
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 19 ม.ค. 2016
- This 1965 MIT Science Reporter television program features the Apollo guidance computer and navigation equipment, which involve less than 60 lbs of microcircuits and memory cores. Scientists and engineers Eldon Hall, Ramon Alonzo and Albert Hopkins (of the MIT Instrumentation Laboratory) and Jack Poundstone (Raytheon Space Division in Waltham MA) explain and demonstrate key features of the instruments, and detail project challenges such as controlling the trajectory of the spacecraft, the operation of the onboard telescope, and the computer construction and its memory. The program was presented by MIT in association with WGBH-TV Boston, and hosted by MIT reporter John Fitch; it was produced for NASA. MIT Museum Collections.
So proud to call this reporter my grampa! 94 years old and sharp as ever :)
Edit: He passed in November of 2020, but before he did, he said he had done everything in life that he wanted to do (except live to 100!) We miss him, but take comfort in knowing he lived his life to the absolute fullest.
Beautiful :-)
So maybe you can help me because I am making the Spanish subtitles to upload this video in English (Closed caption) and Spanish subtitles, because in this video, besides your loved grandfather, there is an Argentine scientist, Ramon Alonso, that appears in this video, and I want to pay tribute to him, and to who made possible to make this trip to the moon possible.
I am in trouble with a dialog that Mr. Jack Poundstone says in the minute 23:10 to 23:14.
I write down here what I have heard:
"and that, in turn, causes the core (???) to move to its position."
What did he say after the "core" word? Plane?
Thanks a lot in advance for your help!!!
Greetings to your Grandfather!!!
Greetings from Argentina!!!
WOW! What an incredible thing to be able to say, and what a great link to a piece of history.
I followed the space program since the early 60s, and this was like coming across gold dust!
Yes, you should be proud; he did a fantastic job. My hat's off to him.
@@jerrystone9453 I made the spanish subtitles of this fantastic video, and uploaded to my TH-cam channel, as a tribute to Ramon Alonso who was an Argentine collaborator for the apollo computer. I feel proud about a countryman contributed to put a man on the moon...
nice
Notice how calm this documentary is. No music, no screaming, just people talking calmly.
Since when would there be any screaming? 🤔
Yes, and also no stupid repeating as in low cost american "documentary" films 👍
This is how it have to be.
No females either.
@@nonyafkinbznes1420 I saw more women than men. Are you claiming the majority of the people in this are trans?
We spend a lot of time talking about the hippies of the 60s , while these geniuses are actually the ones that moved us into the next generation.
I've been saying that for YEARS man hahaha
Students, through all times, this intellectual future elite make themself the willing tools for questionable ideologies. In Nazi Germany they happily burned books, in the 60s mass murderer Mao was their hero, and today they support Hamas terrorists.
The hippies were late 60,s they had beatniks in the early 60,s.
These are not hippies, these are the conservatives trying to move society forward, true progressions. Not regressions.
Nope. The hippies were busy complaining and protesting. Leftists are the same generation after generation.
People don't realize that it was through NASA and the space program that advancements were made in computers as well as other fields we take for granted today
What about the work of Alan Turing and other scientists at Bletchley Park? Wasn’t this work not also subsequently utilised?
Back when a reporter was not just a talking head. Kudos to this guy for knowing and understanding enough about the subject that he can actually ask intelligent questions pertaining to the interview!
to be fair, he works for MIT as a science reporter. This isn't like TMZ sending out a 'reporter' to get the scoop.
The actual media has never been anything but a shallow vessel for the how's and whereby's in the moon missions. The documentation and videography seems not to have been deemed important by NASA or government services to preserve all data and techniques. Films like this emanated from individual institutions supporting the missions putatively under the aegis of NASA. At one time army, navy and air force had film teaching bodies but for the moon landings that level of detailed instruction and information was evidently left in the air. Frustrating later generations who cant know now thanks to destroyed files, film, and dying scientists. Fueling the delusions of idiots who believe it was never done.
It is difficult to make generalizations about different times; especially since our understanding of those times is limited and our views often are filtered through our views of today's society. But I will say that there are wonderfully knowledgeable introductions to a whole host of scientific subjects here on TH-cam. Some are amateurish, some not very good, but there is a very solid niche of high-quality, knowledgeable and articulate introductions, discussions, interviews, etc. that are as good or better than this film. Which by the way I also thought was great.
Oh I don't know, Maggie Aderin-Pocock makes for a very good interviewer on Sky At Night.
@@rogerscottcathey Soooooo you be live that the freaking IDIOTS who lost thousands of telemetry tape data actually FOUND their way to the moon?????? Dang you are smart :)))))))))
Back when audiences were not treated as idiots what an awesome doc
You have to be kidding?
Iol...
@@trollobite1629 can you imagine a program just half as detailed and complicated as this in todays broadcast?
Back then the audiences were not idiots. My father and his classmates math classes were taught algebra and geometry routinely starting in the 6th grade. Today, I believe this demonstration would have to go a lot slower for it to sink in. I believe some schools have dropped math and /or other disciplines and replaced it with social and race classes.
@@ratdad48 “race classes” huh 😂. I imagine you have interesting views on seggragation and slavery 😏
Wow. As someone who was born 3 years after this, in 1968, and now a 55 y/o electrical and software engineer designing autonomous vehicle software, this is just mind blowing. Watching them make those memory cores when I have 256 gigabyte micro sd card in my hand is just tripping me out. He said one holds 65k bytes of information. He means BITS!! More like 8k bytes. I feel really old right now but also happy to have lived through this amazing computing revolution.
256 Gb / 8 kb = 256E9 / 8000 = 32,000,000 Which means, I have 32 million times the memory as one of those cores in an object the size of a thumbnail, in my hand, that cost 20 bucks delivered in 2 days from Amazon. All in just 58 years. Unreal.
The technological development in the 20th century was indeed astonishing.
I am 45 y/o now. Had I been born on the day the Wright brothers started the worlds first motor flight in Kitty Hawk, I would have watched the Japanese tear down the century old idea of the battleship as king of the seas at Pearl Harbor at my 40th birthday and could watch Chuck Yeager tear down the sound barrier today.
I will see the Soviets have a man in space when I will be two years older than you are now and only eight years later, I will have retired a year or two before, I will hear „A small step for a man, a giant leap for mankind“
Maybe I will take the Concord to celebrate my 75th birthday in NYC.
Impressive development, isn‘t it?
yes but listen to what he says about how the memory is constructed @13:03 he completely dodges the question in regards to erasable memory and his explanation of fixed memory is very odd... instructions woven into the pattern of the sewing around magnetic cores. I am not able to relate that to any explanation I've heard of today's(or any) memory. It would be interesting to see how they went from that to fixed instruction processor of micro transistors
@24:43 the wires are all laying on top of each other and seem to be soldered together in places
Moon hoax
And we haven't been back to the moon yet, all that advancement
This appeared in my recommended videos after watching CuriousMarc and his team restore an Apollo computer. It's neat to see one being built.
Maxxarcade And this is obviously a different generation (older probably), as some details don't match the series 200 100 serial number 14 he restored (different rope memory unit shape) or possibly the spaceship details (the two work locations for Astronauts, though he could be referring to the CM or SM layout).
I like those dinosaur computers. I don't understand how they work but I marvel at they genius yet foreign (to a modern guy like me at least) design
same here
cpt nordbart This is more like a cute little lizard than it's dinosaur cousins.
And if you liked that, you will like this ...
34C3 - The Ultimate Apollo Guidance Computer Talk
th-cam.com/video/xx7Lfh5SKUQ/w-d-xo.html
If you have closely watched CuriousMarc's series you may have seen this one already as I did post it in the comments to one of his videos :)
Being a programmer, I hold these geeks in highest esteem and awe. Albert Hopkins is my new hero. That guy ruled!
Bob Little Try Margaret Hamilton... I’m impressed by the work she did.
The whole team was the Geeks to End All Geeks.
Back when finding a bug in the system meant you had to use your shoe to squash it
What language do you use?
@@jackilynpyzocha662C & Java, but mostly Python lately
From a time when Tv was expected to educate and enlighten as opposed to the rubbish we broadcast now
Survivorship bias. Mindless crap was popular back then too, it just wasn't worth saving. But yeah, we are getting dumber too. What are you doing about it?
Another one of those "what have you ever done?"-type TH-cam responses. Where's the :rolleyes: emoji when you need it, eh?
Take note; people can have a valid opinion about pretty much anything without having to have personally served as a politician, astronaut, TV executive or whatever.
FWIW I agree with Jon. Modern TV documentaries don't go into nearly as much detail as this little gem, _otherstuffexists_ notwithstanding.
@@nagualdesign As valid as the opinion is, and as free as anyone is to express it, it's still not helpful to stand around a trainwreck just saying how gross all the blood is. If that's an opinion that one wants to have, entitled and unempathetic and too good to google anything or think about possible solutions, perhaps it would be better to have it further away from the crash, and stop distracting the first responders (many of whom aren't doctors or lawyers or astronauts either)?
@@alakani That quite an analogy. Not sure if I really understand.
So you're saying that comparing today's TV documentaries to the one shown in the video is like witnessing a train wreck and being too up yourself to start Googling "how to respond to a train wreck"?
Or maybe Jon should wait another 50 years before passing comment, or maybe comment on an unrelated forum?
Who do the first responders represent? :-/
@@nagualdesign It's just a metaphor. Humans are far from perfect, especially in a contemporary society that's evolving faster than our biology can keep up. We're subject to a wide range of logical fallacies that stem from cognitive dissonance and other cognitive biases. Personally, I have to read a list of logical fallacies and cognitive biases almost every day, and put in an active effort to try to catch myself as much as possible, and I'm still terrible at it. But it's necessary in order to have a deep conversation, which isn't something that strangers usually even attempt (due in part to Dunbar's number). So I appreciate you taking the time, but the straw man arguments are making it more difficult. Hopefully it goes without saying, if you've noticed anything I could be doing better, please let me know. But yes, in general, I think people who complain should also try to do something, ideally something evidence based, or at least say their ideas for solutions at the same time as complaining. And ideally have some empathy for the world of people who are getting even more screwed than Jon here by the decreasing availability of quality educational content. Maybe it would be better to think of it like 'wow I feel really bad that a whole generation of kids might grow up without some of the opportunities that I had, what can I do to help?'
Even today that computer is amazing.
you can watch a restoration of the AGC: th-cam.com/video/2KSahAoOLdU/w-d-xo.html
@@Strothy2 Wow thanks for the link it's incredible!
@@garyharrison4915 you are welcome! maybe share it those guys deserve more views :)
I did only see some parts, not that there was computing of anything?
@@hongry-life It's kind of a programmable calculator... set functionality but the operator has flexibility to choose which function to use, such as the display time.
Apollo Guidance Computer is such a masterpiece of engineering and miniaturisation, showing off the future. In hindsight one of the most influential achievements of the entire Apollo Program.
BS!
My watch is many many times more powerful than the Apollo Guidance Computer.
Aviation quality, fault resistant. It was and to this day still is one of the best designed computers ever made.
@@robertwilliamson922 But neither as reliable or mission critical. You cannot land with your watch on the moon safely.
@@randomunavailable Exactly their quality standards were mindblowing. They used 60 % of all chips made at that time for the Apollo computers.
This documentary is a nugget. I am surprised to see that they go that deep in the description and explanation of the production process for a general public program. Nowadays, very few go that far alas. It is a pity that the contrast founds its limitations and we can't see some details nevertheless, what a colossal achievement we had here. Respect to all the people who were involved in this program, they can be proud. Very impressive in each and every aspect. Regards from France.
I agree. The Apollo program certainly attracted the best of the best.
This video shows why it cost so much to develop the space program. Most all of the engineers who designed and built the equipment to build the systems also had to design and build the test equipment. Computer controlled machines took over for the manual pieces of manufacturing. Eventually computer designed circuits create the chips and as circuits got miniaturized to almost atomic levels only computers can create them.
Wait till the liberals show up talking about "this girl"
Key details on function are left out so the commies didn't get enough to work with.
Some German people have managed to get that computer to work again for a museum. They have videos of the entire innards to it and how it works.
My deepest respect towards that generation. They did science with those magnetic nuclei to elaborate memories and establish a programming. Profoundly admirable and great how they applied analog and digital electronics to make these computers work. wonderful coordination, teamwork and pure engineering
That was stunning. Thank you to all involved.. Back when audiences were not treated as idiots what an awesome doc.
2 week old NASA propaganda account. No genuine person believes this nonsense.
@@MattyEnglandare you ok?
Probably one of the best historical videos I've seen on TH-cam. The rarely experienced descriptive detail allowing you to appreciate not only the sheer complexity of the design and build of the AGC but the design of the machines, people and processes needed for manufacturing, this was a feat in itself. Amazing.
I wonder if he's punching keys to look busy or if he's typing in some mystical math formula into that thing🤣
@@raven4k998 Dialing home to ask his wife to start getting the dinner on.... 😉
It's funny to me how they have absolutely no problem going into details into *how* and *why* this stuff works. The people producing it, the reporter covering it, and the public at large was interested in this stuff and there was an actual demand for engineering-level videos about the technology behind it.
Today, it's impossible to get even a fraction of this level of detail from anyone - let alone government agencies.
Actually almost everything you want to know about is easily accessible. It’s just only a few people on the planet even begin to understand it. It just looks like gibberish to normal people. What exactly are you not able to find? The only things you can’t find are things that are classified due to security risks. Military technology.
jordan secrist
you left out, or behind a pay wall.
originally this wasnt for public consumption .. this was to show congress and the military brass ... what they were spending their money on in excruciating detail ..... it is no different than the various youtubers bread boarding a basic computer ...
In part it is like that because today's smartwatch is 1000x more complicated than the whole AGC was. We use more and more "things" that were made using CAD techniques, and human just couldn't done it without computers. Same is with algorithms - let's take the the neural networks - we know how they are constructed, understand principles of their work, but never know how and why they returned a particular decision. So quite often it is our ignorance, but also - our world is just too sophisticated for us, so majority of us quit trying to understand it.
Even supposed science programs are dumbed down and never give details.
Very interesting to see what was state of the art technology in 1965. It is all so inventive. And you can see how each of these devices were early prototypes for the microcircuitry we have now.
Today with all our computing power..we must always remember we are standing on the shoulders of these early microcircuit developers and scientists..
The thing that makes this computer so historically important is that in order to get it small enough and light enough to fit in the lunar lander, engineers created the worlds first integrated circuit. Prior to this the smallest computer was about the size of 3 refrigerators.
Neil Bishop yep, that’s what Earthworm Jim said at the cemetery.
I have seen some very, very early ICs. They had a removable plastic lid so you could see the coloured gold wires between the pins and the ceramic blob. The pin numbering was different too, even pins one side, odd numbered pins on the other.
Listening to them talk I can feel somehow that their world moved more slowly than ours. Everything is so leisurely here. They were making the definitive documentary on this topic, which would be broadcast on TV at a time when there weren’t that many channels to choose from. They weren’t competing against a billion other TH-cam videos.
3 channels in most of the country. 4 in major cities.
Yep, when you're racing the Russians to space, what makes more sense than to broadcast all your best technology on national television 😮 How does that make any sense whatsoever?
@@MattyEnglandyou think the Russians had no idea what to do? They had equally brilliant minds working on their own space programme.
@@adriangroeneveld9341 So by the same logic, you think it would make sense for governments to broadcast plans for nuclear weapons, fighter aircraft and submarines, because other countries have intelligent people too? Classified information is classified for a reason.
It's was supposed to be a 'Space race' not a 'Space collaboration'.
Anyone with half a brain realises that in any competition, you don't give away something that may be an advantage to your competitor.
@@MattyEngland If it that technology was classified it wouldn't have been on TV would it. The Russians had guidance computers back then too, the classified part is how they were programmed and how all the systems were connected.
"someone has compared it to, shooting at a moving target, from a revolving platform, which is mounted on a train, which is going around a curve"
That 'someone' must be CRAZY :D
It's quite accurate as earth is the revolving platform mounted on a solar orbit, the curve that it moves on, while the moving spacecraft moves at a curve too while looking at it and a star. Not crazy at all. Just dynamic complexity.
@@Nilmoy Look I can get all Einsteiny on you here and say motion is dependent upon your relative position. ie We are not all getting motion sickness from the Earth spinning.
I still find the original analogy crazy.
Someone also compared it to a cake walk.
It turns out lots of people say silly things.
@@kimsland999 It sounds like you find the analogy crazy because you are not thinking of it on how it is being applied. Yes you are correct that we do not feel motion sickness from the Earth's rotation, but the analogy the OP was referring to in the video, he is talking about navigation to the moon and what that is like, so the analogy is actually spot on. What crazy is you hearing that analogy and somehow relating it the way you did in the few words here rather than how it was indented with navigation.
When I was in the Navy I worked on the SLQ-32 which was an electronic warfare system also made by Raytheon, and a lot of this same technology was still in use. In 1993 I was assigned to the Program Office that oversaw the SLQ-32 project, and I went to the factory in Goleta, CA where they were using that same wire wrap machine to manufacture motherboards for SLQ-32 units, although the paper tape reader had been replaced with a magnetic tape unit.
The SLQ-32 had four 128KB magnetic core memory modules, each module consisted of three cards, so it took 12 cards to provide 512K of memory, and this was in the 1980s. It was enough to hold an emitter library that contained 256 emitters in a fixed library and 128 emitters that could be entered by the operator. The magnetic core memory was just being replaced with more modern RAM modules in the late 1980s. The Navy clung to magnetic core for so long because it was non-volatile and easier to EMP harden.
The Apollo computer and the ROLM1606 of the SLQ-32 could get by with these tiny amounts of memory and processing power because all they really did was crunch numbers. There were no fancy displays that use up most of the processing power in a modern computer. On Apollo, most of the computational heavy lifting was done on the ground and transmitted up to the computer. All the onboard system had to do was perform some simple calculations and fire the thrusters at specific times for specific durations, or as shown in the video, slew a telescope. The SLQ-32 just had to compare the numbers it got from the receivers to what was in memory and display a symbol.
Prior to the space program, most of the designers' experience with portable computers was with mechanical systems that were used for gun laying or navigation, and you can see some of that kind of thinking in the design of the Apollo computer. The rope memory, in which the software had to be woven into the modules is really a mechanical solution to a digital problem, and the machine that indexes the modules to the proper position when a switch is tripped by the needle being inserted through a hole is really a mechanical computer. It shows the almost limitless ingenuity that goes into solving these problems.
Great information Larry....Also ,the MIT.Raytheon built flight computer was 10 years ahead of anything as yet developed.It was actually like a Apple II of 1977 heritage It was more then capable of flying the spacecraft.While a Iphone could run the flight program code in a app,.It would likely crash and require shielding to protect it from radiation interference.I'm betting the gold box gets me to the Moon and back 10 times out of 10 ,
I like this Split-flap display.
And this wire-memory is pretty baffling. It is amazing you still use this technology in the SLQ-32 project. Amazing stuff!
I do want to be clear that the SLQ-32 used magnetic core memory as RAM. The actual software was on magnetic tape cartridges. The wire rope memory that they show being made for the Apollo computer was based on the same concept except there were no write wires installed. the magnetic cores were polarized and installed then the wire was woven through them as shown. One core installed backward and the whole module was bad. They were roughly analogous to a late '80s vintage game console cartridge in that to change the program you had to swap one module for another.
Well, the SLQ-32 program was initiated in 1975, so it wasn't that far separated from the Apollo program. The mag core memory was phased out of the fleet systems by 1995.
Larry Did you see CNN /NY times article report a few weeks ago,they claim the Pentagon has been investigating aerial phenomenon,they claim the Aegis system in the USS Princeton target a object or objects operating off the San Diego coast,2 Navy F -18 were sent to investigate,what they saw and photographed is fairly odd.Now could this have been a glitch in both systems.They said something to the effect,that the Aegis system couldn't separate the objects from the F -18's.Do you have any knowledge of the system ,now it appears the pilot had a visual,but whats going on here,if anything ?.One video has a break down on the infrared targeting system,you can see the pilot ,trying to hone in on something. Heres one of many interviews.with the pilot...th-cam.com/video/14wkpHH6CpQ/w-d-xo.html
This video is a treasure trove of information about a crucial, but little publicized part of our successful Apollo project. I love all these MIT films, but this one stands out as superb!
i will second that
As an electronic engineer, one of whose high school lecturers worked at Bletchley Park, and 80s computer geek (go 6502!) the whole AGC story simply astonishes me. Take nothing away from the challenges and efforts elsewhere in the program but this was off the scale and breaking the boundaries of what they even thought might be possible. I worked with ferrite-core memories in warship fire control systems in the 90s. They were reliable and robust but antiquated (though for ‘antiquated’ read ‘proven’) and were orders of magnitude smaller than those of Apollo. I truly believe that the AGC was the most ‘giant leap’ of the whole Apollo program.
A lot of the math in the 60's was done on a slide rule and compared to a computer output!
Similar story "over here": I used to operate node computers with 64kBit Ferrite-core memory for a military mobile telecommunications network, which was used in the German army until the mid-90s, programmed by paper strips which we created on a teletypewriter beforehand, based on the actual tasks. Nuclear-strike proof, simple, but fully functional. To have that type of technology utilized to its max in order to fit into a rather tiny box and navigate through space is a real achievement. And it seems to me that only we nerds can actually feel its importance. :)
Thanks for the stories guys. They were fun to read.
I'll see your "6502" and raise you a Z80
@@sharonhillgartner5829 I loved to calculate math formulas using BASIC language of Z80 processor computer ZX Spectrum 48k
Brilliant explaination of the developments of the digital computer for Apollo. Its hoped that this switches the light on for all those who still think alien tech is the source of today's computers. This film shows the steady progress of computer size reduction and why miniturisation occured so rapidly during the 1960s and led to home computers in the late 1970s.
To think this was cutting edge tech back in the day! indeed it would not be another ten years or so before personal computers would become readily available to the general public.
Programming with needle and thread, wow!
My degree in cross stitch may yet be valuable!
I think the needle and thread part is more like "saving the program", and what we would call "programming" today was mostly done with pencil and paper?
Quite literally. I was sure that this step would've been done by a machine
@@steve1978ger correct
"The girls.." this, and "..the girls did that." WOW!
1965 was the year I started to program on large IBM equipment. I loved the idea and so I did it for 50+ year afterwards. Neat to see this equipment that was the generation that miniaturized everything in electronics.
So true. If people who complain that we wasted a lot of money to go to space and got nothing of value from it, could only see where we are today with technology, compared to where we would currently be if computers were not miniaturized as they had to be, for space flight. Not to mention today's benefits of all the satellites we use today.
I started working in a main frame computer center in 1968 and was there for 36 years. Today, a cell phone has more power than the 4 main frames we had in 1968.
24:38 -- "Here you see a 'fairly complex' wiring pattern." (understatement of the entire 1960's decade)
for me the most impressive thing are the machines that construct the computer wiring. it's crazy to think that these machines had to be thought of in the first place, and before them other machines had to be invented to construct the machines that construcht the machines that finally do the wiring. exciting to see that in 1965, where so many things - from our perspective - were primitive, other things seem modern.
The wiring IS the program and done by hand
@@benyomovod6904 dude it's been 4 years. i had to rewatch the entire video to remember. thanks.
I really wish men (myself included) still talked like this. Instead of the modern "youtube voice" style that everyone seems to have these days. Love the calm, authoritative style with no "uptalk".
So many of the talking heads in media and "positions of authority" have been coached to speak (and gesture) a certain way. No one just speaks naturally with their own brains anymore. And more and more language is being removed as people use "emojis" to communicate. Think about how kids and young people who never knew anything else formulate their thoughts now. It's all very sad... and by design.
@@SSerebraSSana It's a real-life "Idiocracy" in the making. Quite disappointing.
@@SSerebraSSana, oh, these guys were coached how to speak lol
This is the "we are scientists, you must believe us" way of talking, an outgrowth of the military mindset of a commanding officer giving orders to the troops.
What about the way he keeps saying "this... girl"? I'd rather not bring that back.
@@JB52520 Funny thing is... I promise you "that girl" had no idea she was supposed to be offended. Because there is nothing offensive about saying "this girl," and there never was, until people were trained to think of it as offensive, without any legitimate basis. He wasn't insulting her in any way, shape, or form, but these days, people's "triggers" light up because he used the "g" word. So, yeah -- bringing back open, honest communication, without the brainwashing? It's worth considering.
When I was protyping 8x48 MCUs during my electronics studies in the 80s, we used thin insulated wire (wirewrap) protyping to construct, but this wiring is a whole different level of detail. I wouldn't have the patience then, or now
Having worked at MIT/IL Bldg 7 on Apollo during the late 1960s, and having visited Raytheon, some of this information is new to me. But my job was different, so I suspect that was to be expected. As complex as the technology appeared to be in 1965, it was fairly simple by today's computer technology standards. The operator entry DSKY shown in this video and used on the Apollo Command Module (CM) and Lunar Module (LEM) help set the standard for modern push button telephones and computer keyboard layouts. The AGC computer never failed during its use on the Apollo missions.
I came from the CuriousMarc
channel, they are restoring one of this Apollo computers.
how far we have come... the key thing is that it worked.
it still reminds me of one of my favorite Spock quotations: "I am endeavoring to construct a pneumatic memory circuit using stone knives and bearskins"
Kayla and Jim Bryant
pneumatic isn’t the right word, but nice approximation of the original dialogue.
This is a GEM of a documentary! The fact that we were able to work through all the analog problems of early computing is amazing.
This video is absolutely fantastic and should be preserved for future generations. It is not possible to overstate it's historic importance.
The guidance computer was the star behind the scenes of Apollo. The computer had such limited power and memory, but the MIT team used such concise and elegant logic so that it could function so well. Even when there was the unexpected 1202 problem on the Apollo 11 during the descent onto the moon, the guidance computer handled it very well and allowed them to land.
All done with NOR gates
Cut the bs this thing stayed bellow 300 miles
@@PT-xi5rt Yes indeed. It ended up at zero miles, on the Mare Tranquilitatis. Well under 300, as you say.
@@Blitterbug Stop being so gullible
@@PT-xi5rt Aw, stoppit. Laughter hurts my ulcer.
What wonderful historical footage. 👍
I am always blown away by the ingenuity of the engineers and toolmakers who created the automated tools to make these intricate manufacturing processes possible.
Wow, the amount of time spent making those memory cores. It's insane how far we've come
Yes, I'm still wondering why they didn't just use a diode matrix for the ROM.
Ken Logsdon apparently you are the smartest in the room. Why you don’t join NASA fixing all their issues?
Ken Logsdon never seen a LED display with a dark pixel? That’s why.
@@kenlogsdon7095 they used core memory because it was reliable and simple. They knew it would survive the mission
Yes still using rockets to reach space lool
Those ELD segment displays were state of the art way back then ❤
There is a great book if anyone is so inclined - "The Apollo Guidance Computer: Architecture and Operation
Book by Frank O'Brien". It gives you everything you need to know about it!
Book are not real. Books are a hoax. Why would they use books back then when we have ipads. Books were invented by the government to tax you more for the environment. The only people you see reading books are actors paid for by the government.
I’m still trying to get through it. It’s everything and then some, and it’s pretty densely packed.
Moons are not real. They are just a manifestation of the atmosphere, like a cloud: appearing when the conditions are favorable and not a targetable goal for androgenal occupancy.
@@JimAllen-Persona Sounds interesting, does it give details about the instruction set, registers, etc. ?
went looking for the book, mostly 40.00 + shipping, but just found it free as a PDF, thanks
Wooow. I've been looking for this kind of buzz all my life.
John Townsend Fitch died on November 28, 2020 at the age of 94 at his home in Boston, Massachusetts.
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15:54, when testing the micrologic components, if there’s any significant failure, the ENTIRE lot of 5,000 is rejected - wow! That’s taking reliability and safety extremely seriously. Amazing. And the centrifuge and leak testing - I can only imagine how intensely interesting it must have been coming up with testing protocols.
I wonder how long it took to make a lot of 5000? That def is taking account and making sure the mistakes are caught
I think those micrologic components are what we would call "integrated circuits". Fairchild Semiconductor (where Gordon Moore of Moore's Law, was the head of R&D) made the integrated circuits.
"micrologic components" pronounced COM-ponents. :)
That was stunning. Thank you to all involved.
I like the way he talks, that old american english was so easy to understand. I admire the ingenuity of the engineers who build this groundbreaking computer.
Every now and then a random TH-cam suggestion leads to a hidden treasure like this.
I can't believe they were doing automated 'CNC' soldering back then. Amazing.
I hope these wonderful technicians, engineers and scientists have, for the most part lived to see 2018 tech! Brilliant! They were brilliant!
some are still with us, in 2019!
Eldon Hall, the first one interviewed, is still alive - at least he was when Curious Marc spoke with him a year or so ago.
This gets recommended when you bingewatch @curiousmarc videos.. :-)
Just think, one of those modules contains 512 bits of program. not 512 Meg, not 512 K, not 512 Bytes, but 512 Bits. The model was programmed as it was wired up. Man how technology has progressed through the years. It is amazing how they had wire the entire module. it took a team of 10 people to assemble / test one module. Today, it takes 1 person to monitor a machine making 512 meg read only modules for today's computers. It is amazing how Apollo 11 accomplished its mission. Back then this was state of the art.
Actually they contained 36k words (15 data bits + 1 parity bit). Each core was used by multiple data wires.
Though if they’d missed their launch window, the immutable ROM data likely would have been obsolete.
And now they cannot reproduce it?
@ungratefulmetalpansy That means that the knowledge is gone, that nobody can do it. It's like going to the moon in 1969 and now saying that the technology to go there is gone.
@@hongry-life Anything can be "reproduced", but there is absolutely no reason to spend countless of millions of dollars just to reproduce antiquated technology all over again.
Heck, even a high quality C-cassette recorder can't be readily and profitably made today, because there is just limited demand and it's not worth it. Only one factory in the world is producing the mechanisms and they only make a cheap variant. Also Dolby is no longer producing noise reduction chips.
Just because something is simple in terms of features, doesn't mean that it's simple to make.
1965, so impressive they already made stuff like this. Great video
Early 60s Seeburg jukeboxes used similar iron core memory in their Tormat memory "computer". Pretty cool in that even if the box was unplugged, it would still remember the record selections already made.
those cores took about 50 minutes to discharge enough to lose memory ... this is why when you unplug your router they say wait 10 seconds ... to allow the capicitors to discharge ... even your modern memory still uses this same style of storage ... just in extremely small spaces ...
0623kaboom Apollo core memory (RAM) wouldn't magnetically discharge in 50 years, when a scrapped Apollo Computer was recently repaired, they could read out the last position stored in memory and confirm it had been at the space centre where it was scrapped.
Interesting. My father operated jukeboxes for a time, and he said Seeburgs were the best. He never told me about the core memory. It was essentially the same as a computer core memory, with 1-bit words. One core recorded whether one side of a particular record had been selected. I don’t think they did it that way because they wanted non-volatility. It was just simpler than the previous mechanical memory.
the detail and complexity of this is so deep it beggars imagination. Systems analysis, research engineering and manual technique combined to a degree much more detailed than a Swiss watch. Just wow.
If you think that was complex, catch this: Those gals making the ROM modules where forging every single byte of the code for the programs storaged... by hand. So in other words, they where programming the programs directly into the memory they were constructing.
Plot Twist: Those gals could make a vest having the entire source code from the main computer of the apollo program... in 1958.
@@PointReflex A practice still common in the 1980's because even then, 1K of ram was still precious and hand coding the Z80 assembler language was the way to go before blowing it to an eprom. Wouldn't mind getting it still happens today because the resultant code is bloody fast.
@@trollobite1629 Early microcomputers such as the Altair 8080 (from 1974) was programmed using switches. Basically it was manual work just like the weaving in this video...
I’m over here geeking out. It’s amazing what people can do when given the motivation and resources to accomplish a common goal.
What a great presenter. Calm, confident and erudite.
Note regarding the computer’s fixed Rope Memory mentioned here: the weaving took place in a factory located in Waltham, Massachusetts near the textile mills from which the weavers were recruited. Also here's an excerpt from The Navigation Computer episode in the 2008 Discovery Science documentary series Moon Machines. th-cam.com/video/DWcITjqZtpU/w-d-xo.html
One of those lectures I watched on TH-cam was just a ream of acronyms and numbers, virtually unintelligible to a vaguely intelligent personoid.
Thank you for putting this up; it's absolutely mind blowing how they accomplished things back then. Rope memory anyone? 🤯
Matt V WOW, it's a good thing they applied the space brakes to slow down for the moon orbit, because the lunar anchor failed to deploy.
Whew. Close call.
Yep, loose 2 dozen astronauts just getting into earth orbit, but travel 238k miles to the moon and back six times dragging a car, stay overnight, and return.....piece of cake.
Total hoax.
Ken K it's for a reason that millennials like you who are not even intellectual enough to create actual humor, that you criticize a engineering accomplishment that is too complex for your simple mind.
Humanity peaked in the 20th century.
Everything since has just been grandstanding
I do agree. It’s an interesting take on our idea of observing over time the advancement of technology which we believe advances civilization. However, is this really the case?
I love the guy talking about the math operations. Basically all of what he's saying and talking about is still present in all modern computers.
Wonderful. You'd have thought these novel concepts would be dumbed down for the viewer, but there was a much higher degree of jargon than I had imagined, yet the script was extremely clear and easy to follow. such a contrast with today's 'science' TV documentaries.
This was massively dumbed down. Are you saying terms like "arithmetic" are fancy jargon? Though I agree it was much better than most of today's clickbait garbage.
What a wonderful time. All the engineers wore narrow ties, had buzz cuts, and smelled like Old Spice. I still have my slide rule and engineering tables from back then.
^ smelled like cigarettes
Sly Drool
Not always. Don Eyles who wrote much of the Lunar Lander programs smoked weed, slept around, went on protests and turned down an invite to the White House to meet Nixon. Many of his colleagues at MIT were not buttoned down either.
The "Software Engineer," (her own title) Margaret Hamilton, fixed the glitch which would have prevented the space ship from landing! Kudos to her!
I love how in the 50 and 60s, the analog recordings made everyone's voice sound so similar.
If you found this interesting, you may also enjoy watching a dedicated group of modern engineers try to get one of the original Apollo Guidance Computers working after 50 years. In the series of videos, they talk in depth about the construction techniques explained here, implement repairs and try to get one of these computers working again. The link below is the first in a series.
th-cam.com/video/2KSahAoOLdU/w-d-xo.html
If you enjoy the technology of yesterday, you will enjoy this series as well.
cool ... nothing like a trip down memory lane for me ;)
The work it took...
NASA put a lot of work into lying
Apollo program cost over 150 billion dollars in today's money, so yeah, a lot of work went in it. And many fruits of that work we are still indirectly enjoying today.
@joojoo junttila you mean white people enjoyed the 150 billion one thing history has taught me being qualified in the 1960's had nothing to do with your skill or education level my father was an engineer with a masters degree in the early 1970's he trained the man that would eventually become his boss that only had a bachelors Degree. This has been a pattern for decades not just with NASA but throughout all industries in this country for decades.
Fascinating insights from all departments at MIT and Raytheon. I'm particular intrigued how much manual work was involved with constructing computers in the pre-IC era. You practially "knitted" your memory.
The AGC was NOT "pre-IC" computer - as mentioned by Al Hopkins, it used several thousands of simple gates. Without these ICs, it would have been too large and heavy.
Those are the memories of the USA that I have as a child. I was born and raised in Colombia amazed by the scientific and industrial achievements derived from the space program. I watched similar shows on TV when it was worth it.
It is very sad to see what this great nation has become - or at least what they show in the media.
Thank you , absolutely fascinating film, as an ex electronics technician , It's so interesting for me to see how they build a practical, miniaturized version of what in those days would take up half a room , being still mostly in the valve era or tube era if you prefer ( I'm Australian so.... ) , seeing how they managed to build such a compact solid state computer with such primitive components ( compared to today's standards!, with the primitive beginnings of integrated circuits to form logic gates, & package/wire them into such a compact form factor, absolutely fascinating ! , many thanks :)
Interesting sure, but you can't possibly believe they went to the moon and back 6 times without an issue with this wirewrapped mess.
Fascinating stuff. The amount of manual work was incredible and it had to be flawless. All of the "brains" for this was in the Boston area fed by MIT. Silicon Valley was just California wasteland when the technological revolution in computing was occurring on the beltway west of Boston.
There was no software or programming talent in CA in the 1960s. It was all hardware. The algorithmic thinking, as well as all the experience with GNC, was on the East Coast. That changed years later, of course.
The amount of brainpower involved, boggles my simple mind.
This is the most enlightening video on Apollo I've seen in decades. I've seen hundreds of them.
i always wondered, but now I understand the Noun and Verb terminology this computer used!
So glad I don't have to communicate with my desktop computer using the NOUN VERB interface.
1960alp. You don't directly, but your every input is still converted to the noun verb command instructions and data is still recursively loaded to the registers for processing. You are using interpreters to take structured plain English and mouse clicks and convert it to this machine instruction. Assembly Language was the first step away from doing that directly and you are actually seeing Assembly Language on those displays.
Like a Model T better shows what an ICE car really is, than looking at an automatic start, automatic transmission Ford Focus.
Good film. Note that this was shown to the general public. The US was chock full of intelligent engineers in 1965 and avid hobbyists interested in electronics. Today, not so much.
Wanna learn to code? Start here.
Yeah, much less using pro-nouns and adverbs. Can you imagine?
@ Really! It is thought provoking just to watch all this planning and implementation back when I was only 8 years old.
@@Mikael5732 I'm older than you. I was 9 years old! :D
This is a great film on 1960's computer technology for Apollo program! Thanks for sharing it. Maybe some day we can see a version in 4k, with even better detail. ~ Thank you.
Reminds me so much of watching a black and white TV (with rabbit ears).
Even if someone makes a 4K video out of this, it will never be any higher quality than the original recording, which is limited by the original film or video tape resolution.
this is a gem..
What amazes me is that the systems here were directly relevant to the guidance system on ICBMs. I’m astonished they were so open about systems that at any other time would be classified as Top Secret.
Interesting and thorough presentation of, for the time, a huge leap forwards in computer science.
As a side note, this film (1955 - 1966) was directed and produced by Russell Morash (28.56) who is well known for his many TV programs including "This Old House" (1979 - 1990) and "The New Yankee Workshop" (1989).
Very Well Done!!
Wasn't this The New Yankee Workshop?
And perhaps most famously, “The French Chef” with Julia Child.
0:34 Stand there and push buttons while we film you. act like you're testing something.
Brilliant media to explain, in layperson’s terms, how complex space navigation is done. People not fearful of facts without jargon.
It was reports like this from back in the day that made me want to become an engineer while all my friends wanted to become Astronauts!!
I achieved my dreams but none of my friends did!
Simply amazing!!! It makes me wonder how many times they repeated the building process until they got perfect modules!! So many components to place and connect with no defects!! It is an impressive example of the effort required to get to the moon!! For us the new generations science fiction creates the illusion that space travel is an easy accomplishment!!
Sheldon's dad was the computer expert. Spitting image!
Man, he does look like Sheldon. But he would probably be Sheldon's grandpa.
@@frankelmer8055 Yes I agree!
Incredible amount of work that was needed to make it happen!.
Interesting how the Apollo Program/NASA/MIT brought the best people from all over the World, from Germany to Argentina
Let's not forget that this computer was designed for a single purpose. It also didn't suffer from a bloated operating system. No crap running in the background, no graphics or audio interface anywhere, no automatic updates to cause crashes..
Microsoft and Apple was 10 years in the future....
Actually it was too much crap running in the background that nearly aborted apollo 11’s landing on the moon.
this is the most important part. or atleast one of them. guidance systems actual technique used to find path to moon.
seems meaningful. they used stars and earth position for guidance as used on ships.
but i thik it was easier to find moon by placing a radio server at moon and tracking that signals position but tracking position and trajectory relative to stars and earth seems fine too :p and better way in case technology is limited.
Our modern world stands on the shoulders of giants, John Fitch and these engineers are only a few of them.
Love this. The whole explanation and questioning was as wholesome as the design and production of the computer.
Ironic.... I was born in 1965.....I was only 3 1/2 when apollo 11 landed...wish I had memory of it....if you haven't seen it yet....people should look up the TH-cam video of the guys that restored an apollo AGC
Ahhh, the 1960s. When nerds looked like nerds.
and now you work for those same nerds .... because they paid attention in school ....
@@0623kaboom Haha I work for myself and never went to college. Biooootch
@@0623kaboom you watch to many movies ole man
@@0623kaboom Um... Those guys are likely dead now, or at least retired. Nobody's working for them.
Also back then von Braun considered slaves as a consumable and looked like (no surprise) an engineer
Wow! This pioneering work was done in a time of no internet or any ready reference that we are so accustomed to. They are the real problem solvers, way ahead of their times. Bravo 👏
These are the original nerds. ❤️👍
Check out those wiring looms. Manually creating those routes must have been a complete and utter nightmare.
That is why they used women. They like sewing.
This is the reason it was so expensive.
Nightmares watt u Need,nart watneys red bar L 'read a Novel'shot away,use NTFS Novelle,symtacts combe 'comes'?..owe ess toooz,stall..man..'put that light out laddeeez'queue wot'times square'hell owe yank keys?Glass floors?
Just a little tedious.
@@zarion1181 There were also the women of International Latex Corporation who sewed the space suits. Remarkable combination of hi-tech and manual craft work.
I like looking at how terminology had changed. Like how they called RAM Erasable Memory.
Lol I'm actually somewhat familiar with this computer from Orbiter 2016 with the Apollo addon. The whole noun/verb thing I always thought clever.
This miniature computer .... that’s as big as a block of flats
Fascinating from so many perspectives. Especially cultural. Repeatedly referring to the female technicians as girls, and the males as ”operators”! Can you even imagine the grief one would receive today for such remarks? Great video, thanks much for posting!
I believe that "girl" was meant to be respectful and more personal than "operator".
@@NihongoGuy Just the times. We take absurd offense at things that, back then, were not meant that way. MIT and Draper in particular were pioneers in hiring and placing women in professional roles. All new in the 1960s, just as new as integrated circuits.
The interesting thing is just what a social leap Apollo was. In a few years, the space program went from military test pilots flying by intuition and a certain reserved machismo to much more precise and controlled engineering that involved brain power embodied in computers. Also all new in the 1960s.
@@bostonseeker - Your response is the most concise and intelligent youtube post I've read, in a long time.
Yeah and they didn't even ask there workers about the proper pronouns to address them with. That was insensitive to say the least.
Incredible how this program truly feveloped ao much of modern comphting technology. Goes to show what happens when government invests with a clear good purpose and goal.
Thank you for posting this.
these guys sound like it was scripted to the last letter, very well explained..Education, the sharing with the public, all very special to the Apollo project
this was not originally for the public but for the government ... ie congress and military brass .... just think if you bread board a computer today like can be found on youtube ... this is exactly what you are doing but using the dual inline pin Integrated circuits ... what they had then was the basic single transitor component ... so a basic 7400 series IC ... would be 6 of those barrels ... 4 for the gates and 2 for loading stabilisation.
@@0623kaboom No it was not and "military brass" just HAHA.
I guess you have to think before hitting the record button, when you don't have unlimited GBs of storage and video editing software.
I doubt if it was scripted. More likely they were told what the questions would be and decided more or less what they would say; their organized, articulate minds took care of the rest on the fly.