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Original Apollo 11 Guidance Computer source code for command and lunar modules

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Re: Original Apollo 11 Guidance Computer source code for command and lunar modules

#61

Post by prabhanjana_c »

pistate wrote: post #7
prabhanjana_c wrote: post #4

Great to see the AGC assembly code and knowing that Apollo 11 is coded purely in assembly. Not sure if it has any compiler. Also found https://github.com/virtualagc/virtualagc while searching for compiler.

Part of the AGC ROMs implemented a virtual machine for things like matrix multiplication. So, a higher level of abstraction was available but it was still very much coded in its own assembly language.

Thanks! Seems actual code for interpreter is in https://github.com/virtualagc/virtualagc/blob/master/Luminar... . I see it is different for each revision/module.

Re: Original Apollo 11 Guidance Computer source code for command and lunar modules

#63

Post by speps »

qingcharles wrote: post #62

We might never see the code for the Voyagers, though, sadly. It isn't owned by the government, for reasons. You can't FOIA it :(

Might just be because we still communicate with them, having the source might allow bad actors to control them. Hopefully one day, it could be released once obsolete.

Re: Original Apollo 11 Guidance Computer source code for command and lunar modules

#64

Post by Suzuran »

mittermayr wrote: post #21

Well, I have no idea how complete this is, but perhaps a neat Christmas-time-project for anyone with seemingly unlimited tokens to take this and let it build up a simulator, using the real code to drive simulated machinery.

The real problem with it turned out to be that while the software is complete it expected data to be provided from both the crew and the ground at different points in the mission. Without this external data (and more importantly, the procedures and processes that generated it) the software is really just a very obtuse desk clock.

Actually making use of the software required years of extra work in document archaeology and reverse engineering the processes and constraints that generated the data used during the flights.

Re: Original Apollo 11 Guidance Computer source code for command and lunar modules

#65

Post by Suzuran »

dessimus wrote: post #27
mb_thd wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or you use the virtualagc project linked in the readme to do the same thing without wasting a bunch of money on tokens.

And miss the chance to rewrite it in Rust?! How dare you, good sir!

My favorite complaint during development of our simulator was someone who insisted we give them the means to replace the "jingoistic" American markings from the spacecraft so they could pretend the mission was flown by some multinational utopian organization like Starfleet. Of course, that person evaporated when things actually started to work and they would have to actually put effort into their Starfleet artwork instead of just continually trying to start political slapfights on the internet.

The moon hoaxers were boring and unfunny. I remember writing something along the lines of "There is a chance that this will never work because it was all a hoax and never worked in the first place, but I will try anyway because I am an optimist." I think that made them madder than anything else.

Re: Original Apollo 11 Guidance Computer source code for command and lunar modules

#66

Post by iberator »

tonyhart7 wrote: post #49

looks like its not hard to read assembly code

yeah. its common myth. Assemblers with labels and macros can be very easy to read and write

It's way easier to learn basics of 6502 or x86 assembly than to learn a new JavaScript framework from scratch.

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