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NASA Open Sources Apollo 11 Code (2009)

apcmag.com

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Re: NASA Open Sources Apollo 11 Code (2009)

#11

Post by TallGuyShort »

spectre256 wrote: post #6

It's worth noting that the software, while only 36k machine words long, and the hardware, which was very slow even by the standards of other computers of the 60s, were remarkable works created in only a couple years by huge teams (peak of 800 people working on hardware and 400 on software IIRC). Its popular to dismiss the AGC as simple and uninteresting, but it was a challenging engineering task, and it never once ha…

It never once had a failure in flight, except for the short in Apollo 14, which they managed to hack around mid-flight. Cool story: http://www.ibiblio.org/apollo/#Final_exam_for_the_advanced_s...

Re: NASA Open Sources Apollo 11 Code (2009)

#13

Post by andyjohnson0 »

Anyone who is looking for something to run it on could take a look at Block I Apollo Guidance Computer (AGC): How to build one in your basement [1]. The build took one guy four years and a lot of wire-wrap. A fascinating and quite awe-inspiring piece of work.

[1] http://klabs.org/history/build_agc/

Re: NASA Open Sources Apollo 11 Code (2009)

#14

Post by thewopr »

https://code.google.com/p/virtualagc/source/browse/trunk/Lum...

That article calls out this line (among others). I wonder what the actual story behind this comment was. I'm sure it's not as bad as, "I'm just putting this in temporarily and we should fix it before it goes to Mars". It probably means something else.

Anyone have any idea?

Re: NASA Open Sources Apollo 11 Code (2009)

#15

Post by jfthiigsegbje »

spectre256 wrote: post #6

It's worth noting that the software, while only 36k machine words long, and the hardware, which was very slow even by the standards of other computers of the 60s, were remarkable works created in only a couple years by huge teams (peak of 800 people working on hardware and 400 on software IIRC). Its popular to dismiss the AGC as simple and uninteresting, but it was a challenging engineering task, and it never once ha…

Digital Apollo is a great read.

Re: NASA Open Sources Apollo 11 Code (2009)

#16

Post by andyjohnson0 »

thewopr wrote: post #14

https://code.google.com/p/virtualagc/source/browse/trunk/Lum... That article calls out this line (among others). I wonder what the actual story behind this comment was. I'm sure it's not as bad as, "I'm just putting this in temporarily and we should fix it before it goes to Mars". It probably means something else. Anyone have any idea?

Further down in the same file there's a line:

    GAINBRAK,1      # NUMERO MYSTERIOSO

Re: NASA Open Sources Apollo 11 Code (2009)

#17

Post by thewopr »

andyjohnson0 wrote: post #16
thewopr wrote: post #14

https://code.google.com/p/virtualagc/source/browse/trunk/Lum... That article calls out this line (among others). I wonder what the actual story behind this comment was. I'm sure it's not as bad as, "I'm just putting this in temporarily and we should fix it before it goes to Mars". It probably means something else. Anyone have any idea?

Further down in the same file there's a line: GAINBRAK,1 # NUMERO MYSTERIOSO

Yeah, considering the number of people working on this, I can't imagine anything was left to chance. Did the comments have some connotation that was lost to time, was it just joking around, or is there something that the developers seriously weren't sure about?

Re: NASA Open Sources Apollo 11 Code (2009)

#18

Post by rip747 »

andyjohnson0 wrote: post #13

Anyone who is looking for something to run it on could take a look at Block I Apollo Guidance Computer (AGC): How to build one in your basement [1]. The build took one guy four years and a lot of wire-wrap. A fascinating and quite awe-inspiring piece of work. [1] http://klabs.org/history/build_agc/

that guy deserves a medal. 4 years of work and documentation and he gives it to the world. the documentation is pretty good with some incredible pictures and diagrams. now granted i'm not an electrical engineer so i don't know if it is accurate.

Re: NASA Open Sources Apollo 11 Code (2009)

#19

Post by andyjohnson0 »

TallGuyShort wrote: post #2

If this kind of thing interests you, there are some great resources here about the Gemini and Apollo guidance computer architecture, including recreations of them: http://www.ibiblio.org/apollo/ . I also recommend the book "Digital Apollo" about the role of digital computers in early space flight. I found both fascinating.

I second your recommendation of "Diagital Apollo". A very interesting book.

Two other books worth checking-out are The Apollo Guidance Computer: Architecture and Operation by Frank O'Brien and Journey to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Guidance Computer by Eldon Hall. The latter book is not particularly well written, but the author was the AGC hardware design lead and this book captures a lot of his first-hand knowledge of the hardware development and testing process.

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