More than fifty years separate us from the arrival of the Apollo 11 mission to the Moon. More than fifty years that demand we return, and make use of everything we have learned to date. On a computer level, the systems used in that mission are true dinosaurs, and proof of that comes from Forrest Heller, an Apple programmer and developer who compared the specifications of the historic AGC module with modern USB chargers…
One of the most effective ways to visualize our technological advances is to make comparisons with products from previous generations. For example, today it is relatively easy to access a processor with six cores and twelve processing threads running near 4 GHz, while twenty years ago the first Pentium 4 arrived on the market with just a single core and 1.4 GHz of frequency, not to mention that it cost a fortune.
Now, the truth is that this exercise can be extended much further, escaping specific components or platforms. One of the most interesting cases is the one published by Apple programmer and developer Forrest Heller, who compared the virtues of the Apollo 11 Navigation Computer (AGC) with several USB chargers. The most powerful of them in terms of hardware is the Anker PowerPort Atom PD 2, which averages 55 dollars.
The AGC has discrete components with a clock speed of 1.024 MHz (one-point-zero-two-four), 4 kilobytes of RAM, and 72 kilobytes of storage if parity bits are included in each word. In contrast, the Anker charger uses a Cypress CYPD4225 chip with a frequency of 48 MHz, 8 kilobytes of RAM, and 128 kilobytes of Flash storage.
When making a precise comparison of frequencies and types of available instructions, Heller calculates that the charger's processor is 563 times faster than the AGC. On the storage side, the CYPD4225 can store 1.9 times more information and 1.78 times more instructions than the Apollo 11 AGC. Finally, the RAM conversion reveals that the charger has a little over twice the memory of the AGC.
https://old.neoteo.com/minando-bitcoin-con-el-computador-de-navegacion-del-apolo/In summary, Heller believes that four of these chargers have enough processing power to replace the four computers that took the Apollo 11 mission to the Moon, and brought it back. However, there are two small details: redundancy and resistance.
The AGC and its twin systems were specially designed to withstand the extreme hostility of space travel, while modern electronics in devices like this USB charger tend to be garbage, and we would be very lucky to get one or two years of normal use...
More details: Click here
https://old.neoteo.com/core-rope-memory-la-rom-de-los-apollo/