I find it a bit a bit scary that a microcontroller controls charger voltage. There might be a risk of power glitches or bugs causing output voltages which destroy devices.
Apollo 11 Guidance Computer vs. USB-C Chargers
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Re: Apollo 11 Guidance Computer vs. USB-C Chargers
#12And despite the fact that a wall charger has more compute power than the Saturn V, we can't actually go to the moon today.
We've actually lost the ability to go. No one understands how the engines on the Saturn V work anymore. It would take years to tear them apart and analyze them, and most of the original engineers are dead.
And the guidance systems would have to be built back up from scratch.
Kind of sad if you think about it.
Re: Apollo 11 Guidance Computer vs. USB-C Chargers
#13I note that the Google charger has much lower specs than the others. This is what I would expect from them. I worked for a company that was excited about getting them as a customer for our data processing services. We thought (at least I assume management had high hopes) "wow, Google, they must have tons of data and they will pay us tons of money to deal with it". Nope, they optimized and filtered it to the point where they weren't sending us even 1% of what other customers were. Since they were being charged based on volume.
Re: Apollo 11 Guidance Computer vs. USB-C Chargers
#14I find it a bit a bit scary that a microcontroller controls charger voltage. There might be a risk of power glitches or bugs causing output voltages which destroy devices.
I remember there being a guy who reviewed a lot of usb-c cables for compliance (NathanK) having a video on how non-compliant cables can wreck devices:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjeZB12985c
Maybe that's an example of what you mean?
Re: Apollo 11 Guidance Computer vs. USB-C Chargers
#15It would be interesting to also compare the power consumption of the embedded ARM processor in USB-C chargers with the power consumption of AGC (Apollo 11 guidance computer).
Re: Apollo 11 Guidance Computer vs. USB-C Chargers
#16I find it a bit a bit scary that a microcontroller controls charger voltage. There might be a risk of power glitches or bugs causing output voltages which destroy devices.
Some definitely can. There’s a Google Sheet out there listing many different chargers and their levels of compliance. I only remember that Apple did pretty well.
Re: Apollo 11 Guidance Computer vs. USB-C Chargers
#17I find it a bit a bit scary that a microcontroller controls charger voltage. There might be a risk of power glitches or bugs causing output voltages which destroy devices.
I remember there being a guy who reviewed a lot of usb-c cables for compliance (NathanK) having a video on how non-compliant cables can wreck devices: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjeZB12985c Maybe that's an example of what you mean?
And then there's the Nintendo Switch, a black abyss of USB compliance.
Re: Apollo 11 Guidance Computer vs. USB-C Chargers
#18Wow. I'm a vintage computer enthusiast, specifically Atari, and my beloved Atari 800xl computers only have a 1.79MHz clock speed.
I'll never cease to be amazed by technology. I was born in 1985 and our first computer in the house (aside from an Atari 260 and NES) was a machine in 1995 although my computer usage began in 1990 with Apple II variants. My first portable (Game Boy aside) ran Windows CE around 1998ish and my first remotely 'smart' phone was a Treo 650 about 14 years ago. I still get plenty of value out of 8-bit Atari computers yet the USB charger sitting on my desk I'll discard without a thought if it breaks and it has a clock speed 5.5x that of my beloved Atari 800xl computers but the 800xl did come with 64k of memory from the factory so at least there is that, ha.
Just looking at how far the technology has come from 1979 (800xl release date) to 2002 is mind boggling. Had you described an Android or iOS phone to me in 1995 I'd have asked "are you writing a science fiction novel?" and now I have 5 of them I use on a daily basis (multiple accounts on a freemium game) and 2 that I carry on my person. It's crazy and wonderful and terrifying and even a little unbelievable.
Re: Apollo 11 Guidance Computer vs. USB-C Chargers
#19I find it a bit a bit scary that a microcontroller controls charger voltage. There might be a risk of power glitches or bugs causing output voltages which destroy devices.
I remember there being a guy who reviewed a lot of usb-c cables for compliance (NathanK) having a video on how non-compliant cables can wreck devices: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjeZB12985c Maybe that's an example of what you mean?
The spreadsheet by NathanK is here:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1vnpEXfo2HCGADdd9G2x9...
Re: Apollo 11 Guidance Computer vs. USB-C Chargers
#20I find it a bit a bit scary that a microcontroller controls charger voltage. There might be a risk of power glitches or bugs causing output voltages which destroy devices.
Author here.
Thankfully device-side microchips that interface with USB chargers come with overvoltage protection. For example: http://www.ti.com/lit/ds/symlink/tps65983b.pdf
Devices which charge from wall chargers have to undergo testing for power glitches to obtain FCC certification. I forget the name of the test. Somebody else will know what I'm talking about!