Monday, July 27, 2009

THE LITTLE COMPUTER THAT COULD...


It's name was DSKY (Display/Keyboard). It was the interface for the Apollo Guidance Computer, the little wizard that guided the Apollo spacecraft from the Earth to the moon, down to its surface, back to the CM and home. Developed by Raytheon and MIT in the 1960's, it was the digital marvel of its time. It was the first use of integrated circuits, and blazed along at 2 MHz. This Block I model had between 12 and 24k, with later models running 32k.

If your toaster has a digital timer, it probably has more memory... but not a fraction of the genius!

Display courtesy of the Kansas Cosmosphere.

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WELCOME TO THE FUTURE, CIRCA 1969

Welcome to the Missions to the Moon book blog. This is a place to re-live the heady days of the Apollo and Soyuz lunar programs- perhaps the crowning achievements of the 20th Century. Many blog entries will include a new downloadable image or artifact from the space age- items rarely seen and not available in print. It's all in the spirit of my newest book, Missions to the Moon- to remember the great adventure of the Golden Age of space exploration, and ponder what wonders await us in space.

For more info on the author, go to www.rodpylebooks.com.