Just to show how far computers (microprocessors) have come since the mid 1960's:
The Apollo Guidance Computer (AGC) was the first recognizably modern embedded system, used in real-time by astronaut pilots to collect and provide flight information, and to automatically control all of the navigational functions of the Apollo spacecraft. It was developed for the Apollo program by the MIT Instrumentation Laboratory under Charles Stark Draper, with hardware design led by Eldon C. Hall. Based upon MIT documents, early architectural work seems to have come from J.H. Laning Jr., Albert Hopkins, Ramon Alonso, and Hugh Blair-Smith. The actual flight hardware was fabricated by Raytheon, whose Herb Thaler was also on the architectural team.
http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Apollo-Guidance-Computer A similar article is available for the Lauch Vehicle Digital Computer
http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Launch-Vehicle-Digital-Computer http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19730063841_1973063841.pdf <use save target as>
Pretty amazing what was accomplished then.
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