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The Chip Board Archive 24

Re: Computers have come a long way.......

The moon landing is the reason we have today's computers. Back then a "chip" had maybe 20-25 transistors on it and cost $1000+. NASA needed a computer to do the navigation calculations. It had to fit in a limited space and could only weigh so much. $$ was not an issue so they figured out how to get more transistors on a chip. Today you can get a chip with several million transistors on it for less than 50 clams. If not for the moon mission there was no market to push the chip development and we would be way behind where we are now.

I actually got to see one of the Apollo computers once on display at the local mall. Most people do not realize that without it we would not have cell phones and all the other stuff in our homes that are stuffed with microchips. It should be enshrined in the Smithsonian as the most important computer in history.

Messages In This Thread

Think you've seen everything?
"Verrrrrry interesting...as my old friend Artie
Didn't we first do that in 1969 w/ Apollo 11 ? grin
Computers have come a long way.......
...and here I thought you put the QE-2 in my lake.
Re: Computers have come a long way.......
NASA
QUESTION ARCHIE
Re: QUESTION ARCHIE
Thanks, and I thought those hotie gals were real

Copyright 2022 David Spragg