On December 1966, the Apollo Guidance Computer (AGC) made its first flight as part of the Apollo program, becoming a groundbreaking digital system installed in both the Command Module and Lunar Module. Developed by the MIT Instrumentation Laboratory, the AGC enabled real-time guidance, navigation, and control for crewed lunar missions. It was among the earliest computers to use silicon integrated circuits, with performance comparable to late 1970s home computers like the Apple II and TRS-80.
Compact in size at just 2 cubic feet, the AGC housed around 4,100 integrated circuit packages and operated with a 16-bit word length, including a parity bit. Most of its software was stored in core rope memory, a durable read-only system where wires were woven through magnetic cores. A small amount of read/write memory was also included. Astronauts interacted with the AGC using the DSKY (Display and Keyboard), a numeric interface that played a vital role in mission operations.
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