Build your own Apollo computer!

[Ginnie]

Here's a project for any APN or HB: Build your own NASA Apollo Landing computer.
This guy spent a few years and three grand to build his. He even provides a thousand pages of documentation to help you do it.
www.galaxiki.org/web/main/_blog/all/build-your-own-nasa-apollo-landing-computer-no-kidding.shtml

This report describes my successful project to build a working reproduction of the 1964
prototype for the Block I Apollo Guidance Computer. The AGC is the flight computer for the
Apollo moon landings, and is the world’s first integrated circuit computer.
I built it in my basement. It took me 4 years.



Original AGC:
Designed by M.I.T. in 1964
World's first microchip computer
Prototype computer for Apollo moon landing
Memory: 12K fixed (ROM), 1K eraseable (RAM)
Clock: 1.024 MHz
Com pu ting : 11 instruction s, 16 bit word
Logic: ~5 000 ICs (3 -input N OR g ates, RTL logic)
My AGC:
Built from origina l M.I.T. desig n do cum ents
Started November 2000, completed October 2004
~1 5K hand-wrapped wire con nec tion s; ~ 35 00 feet of wire
Cost (parts only): $2,980.
Lab or: ~ 25 00 hours
Logic: ~5 00 ICs (LST TL logic)
Runs flight software (1969 program name: COLOSSUS 249)

Pictures:
www.galaxiki.org/images/blog/agcrack.jpg
www.galaxiki.org/images/blog/agcdsky.jpg

Especially interesting:
CTL Module [9. 9 MB]: Design and construction of the control module.

Oh, and this is his home page:
www.ibiblio.org/apollo/index.html
There's more. You can download a virtual Apollo Guidance Computer here:
www.ibiblio.org/apollo/download.html
available for Windows or Linux. You can even test alarm codes:

View the alarm codes Because of some current bugs (07/19/04) in the way I initialize Colossus, there will be some program alarms at startup, and the PROG indicator will light to inform you of this. You can view the alarms by keying in V05N09E at the DSKY. (In normal AGC shorthand, 'V' is short for "VERB", 'N' is short for "NOUN", and 'E' is short for "ENTR". So "V05N09E" means to hit the keys VERB 0 5 NOUN 0 9 ENTR.)

Program alarms 1105 and 1106 happen to be "downlink too fast" and "uplink too fast". Uplinks or downlinks refer to exchange of telemetry information with ground equipment.

[Grand Lunar]

The memory seems equal to the average ECU/ECM you'd find on a fuel injected engine.

If I had the know-how and tools, I'd do this!

I find it highly unlikely any HB will even attempt to create their own AGC.

First, since it involves NASA and Apollo (in their views anyway), they'll think this is a trick to make them look foolish (like they need any help with that).
Second, given that HBs are not interested in the truth, but merely their beliefs, they won't take the time to take a break from their efforts.
Indeed, they'd rather see Ralph Rene's "demomstrations".

Still, it'd be interesting to see if Rene himself can manage this task.

[Ginnie]

Oh, boy. I found one strange comment about this:

Now, you gotta think about something... if this replica only took one man four years, then why did it take so long for NASA to develop one (with hundreds of people and millions of dollars).

[Data Cable]

Now, you gotta think about something... if this replica only took one man four years, then why did it take so long for NASA to develop one (with hundreds of people and millions of dollars).

And I guess guys who manage to build cars in their garages as a hobby are some sort of some sort of whistle-blow on the automotive industry hoax... since it took the vast majority of human history to produce the horseless carriage.