In 1969, they had not invented lowercase yet.
The common Teletype Model 33 that was widely used in that era only supported upper case.
Original Apollo 11 Guidance Computer source code for command and lunar modules
51–60 of 66 posts
Re: Original Apollo 11 Guidance Computer source code for command and lunar modules
#52I think I read somewhere around here the code could be run today on something as low powered as the chip that runs the USB charger for an iphone So yeah I'd like to see that lol
Yes, 140W USB-C Power Adapter (A3607) has CYPD3135 controller which is based on 32-bit, 48-MHz Cortex M0 CPU with 2 times more RAM (8KB), 128 KB flash and around 500 to 1000 times higher performance.
Re: Original Apollo 11 Guidance Computer source code for command and lunar modules
#53As other commenters have pointed out, some of the comments in there are pretty scary. I guess the astronauts didn't have to read the code: `TC WHIMPER -1 # YES. DONT DO POODOO. DO BAILOUT.`
That could be alright, considering the system architecture. What you don’t want to read is “TOTAL HACK, FIX BEFORE LAUNCH.”
Re: Original Apollo 11 Guidance Computer source code for command and lunar modules
#54I swear, every few years something like this or exactly this seems to come up on HN
Re: Original Apollo 11 Guidance Computer source code for command and lunar modules
#55This is such an interesting peek into the engineering of these sort of systems with very constrained resources at the time. Like any random file you open contains little pragmatic design decisions like this https://github.com/chrislgarry/Apollo-11/blob/master/Comanch... # THE POSITION OF THE MOON IS STORED IN THE COMPUTER IN THE FORM OF # A NINTH DEGREE POLYNOMIAL APPROXIMATION WHICH IS VALID OVER A 15 # DAY INTERVAL…
The Apollo program set a requirement for a fourteen day mission from the beginning. None of the missions lasted that long; the longest was Apollo 17 at 12 and a half days. The Space Shuttle flight software used an interpolating polynomial for the solar ephemeris, with coefficients that were valid 10+ years (I've forgotten the exact number). The solar position was an input to the atmosphere model used to compute on-or…
As a space travel geek from decades ago, I would have upvoted you for the user name alone. :-)
Re: Original Apollo 11 Guidance Computer source code for command and lunar modules
#56Previously posted by me here - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46182669 - but didn't get any interest, not complaiing, good that it got noticed this time.
Re: Original Apollo 11 Guidance Computer source code for command and lunar modules
#57The contribution of the 1969 assembly language is appreciated.
Re: Original Apollo 11 Guidance Computer source code for command and lunar modules
#58I think I read somewhere around here the code could be run today on something as low powered as the chip that runs the USB charger for an iphone So yeah I'd like to see that lol
Even that's probably way overkill.
Re: Original Apollo 11 Guidance Computer source code for command and lunar modules
#59A truly great historical artifact of human space adventure
Re: Original Apollo 11 Guidance Computer source code for command and lunar modules
#60I think I read somewhere around here the code could be run today on something as low powered as the chip that runs the USB charger for an iphone So yeah I'd like to see that lol
Yes, 140W USB-C Power Adapter (A3607) has CYPD3135 controller which is based on 32-bit, 48-MHz Cortex M0 CPU with 2 times more RAM (8KB), 128 KB flash and around 500 to 1000 times higher performance.
How does it compare on IO? The normal blurbs rarely give a hard number but the AGC as a flight computer has to interface with quite a few devices. I found one thing that said it had 20 16-bit IO channels which would be well over 300 io pins.
A follow up question, I have never done anything with microcontrollers. How does one attach large amounts of IO to them? Common bus and everyone talks I2C? Multiplexer IC's?