INDEX – CREDITS – LINKS — [all posts]
larger screen video
Presenting the Apollo Guidance Computer (AGC) alongside the HP2116, our HP9825 with our own designed and built P82.
[index] [all posts] [full page project overview] Part three -P82 revival Part four -P82 techy details Part zero -P82 physical build
INDEX: — navigate the whole project from here. The project examines two 1969 computers – the Apollo Guidance Computer (AGC) and the HP2116 – plus our own P82 development, aided by the HP9825. In post 12 we add 2001 space odyssey to show the imaginary alongside the reality. The ISS – International Space Station – adds a reality check to the 2001 odyssey.
Post (1): 50 years after
Post (2): Overview links — [project overview] [product overview]
Post (3): Comparisons — full page comparisons view
Post (4): INDEX – credits – links to the AGC revival and ending with Sotheby’s sale.
Post (5): DSKY of the – Apollo Guidance Computer (AGC)
Post (6): RAM and ROM memory techy stuff — Details: core memory & core rope
Post (7): P82 – mechanical build — earlier P82 post under ‘digital archiving’
Post (8): P82 – 40 years revival (a) — From Apollo to P82 . . . history & journey
Post (9): P82 – 40 years revival (b) — Reviving some of the original room elements
Post (10) P82 – 40 years revival (c) — P82 back to life . . . many techy details.
Post (11) P82 – remote circuits (d) — Railway: free-standing or automatic with 9825
Post (12) Parallel projects – reality and imaginary — Kubrick’s 2001 space odyssey
AGC photos and information are from NASA, MIT, Wikimedia, or screenshots from YouTube videos.
That note in the top corner along with the media cuttings was written as the first moon step was taken: Monday morning, July 21st 1969 at 3:56:20 seconds (!) a.m. BST (British Summer Time). Transmission was being audio recorded via a microphone in front of the TV !!
[Media side note: the 80 page special issue publication contained 11 full page colour adverts for alcohol and seven for cigarettes.]
The most amazing series is from “CuriousMarc” with a very talented team re-building a complete operating AGC complete with DSKY ready for the 50th year moon landing anniversary of June 2019. There are about 26 episodes, the first three are listed below [I leave full web addresses visible] selected parts of their process are embedded in our project posts.
Digital Poetry: physical inspection
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkFy30kxfh4
LivingSpace — John Gould
https://www.livingspace.earth/home/2018/8/for-future-generations
Bitcoin_onAGC-article&pics
http://www.righto.com/2019/07/bitcoin-mining-on-apollo-guidance.html
Light Years Ahead | The 1969 Apollo Guidance Computer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1J2RMorJXM
MIT Science Reporter—”Computer for Apollo” (1965)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndvmFlg1WmE
(shows the welding of the ICs to the pins and back-plane wire-wrap and much more.)
34C3 – The Ultimate Apollo Guidance Computer Talk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xx7Lfh5SKUQ
MIT archive document 1972
http://ibiblio.org/apollo/hrst/archive/1029.pdf
CuriousMarc:
Part1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KSahAoOLdU
Part2 Nov2018
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Ys-VshuOLQ
Part3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfUhF3BJoBc
Culmination of the incredible work done by the team on one long-lost AGC has been the sale of it for US$ 746,000. Sothebys link:
A most wonderful video of the story we have been following is on this Wall Street Journal link
Direct link to the WSJ video
Technical blog (Ken Shirriff’s blog) – core “rope” memory
http://www.righto.com/2019/07/software-woven-into-wire-core-rope-and.html
Photos of the HP 2116 computer are from the HP Australian Computer museum and annotation by us as we know the machine very well:
http://hpmuseum.net/display_item.php?hw=95
2116A March 1967 hp journal — pdf:
https://www.hpl.hp.com/hpjournal/pdfs/IssuePDFs/1967-03.pdf
Images of the P82 project are of course all from our own stock ! Also taken specially as the machine remains here and in good shape.
Information on the 9825 computer. http://www.hp9825.com/
Photos are ours because we have the 9825 with plug-in 16-bit interface and full documentation – right here!
Photo of HP85: http://computermuseum.informatik.uni-stuttgart.de/dev/hp85/
marcomathieumedia.com 