Memory, that is.
And a mercury delay line.
And a Williams Tube.
Them were the days.
Stone me.
How to make the Apollo Guidance Computer.
LOL memory* at 21:00 ish.
*"Little Old Lady" memory.
It's quite striking how all the ladies are referred to as "girls".
I am now, officially, gobsmacked.
Paper tape, punched cards (Proper IBM ones in a proper IBM card reader), wire wrap machine, core memory, rope memory, stunning.
How far we've* come in half a century.
*It's all down to us GALs of course, you hu-mans would still be banging rocks together, left to your own devices.
More on Core Rope Memory at 22:00 ish.
A little earlier, one of the software guys remarks that they were just making it up as they went along.
Computer spec at 17:00 ish.
And this is where it all started: the traitorous 8.
You can all thank Shockley for being such a crap manager.
Indeed. 
The making of that core rope memory still has me fascinated. Those "girls" were really talented.
In one of those vids, someone asks why the computer was potted.
The answer being that originally they weren't but on one of the orbital trials, someone managed to urinate on an unpotted computer, which had dire results on its operation.
And here's another page about Core Rope Memory with clearer pics of the rope itself.
http://drhart.ucoz.com/index/core_memory/0-123
There's PDP8, and PDP11, ASR33 and all sorts in this one:
And a mercury delay line.
And a Williams Tube.
Them were the days.
Stone me.
How to make the Apollo Guidance Computer.
LOL memory* at 21:00 ish.
*"Little Old Lady" memory.
It's quite striking how all the ladies are referred to as "girls".
I am now, officially, gobsmacked.
Paper tape, punched cards (Proper IBM ones in a proper IBM card reader), wire wrap machine, core memory, rope memory, stunning.
How far we've* come in half a century.
*It's all down to us GALs of course, you hu-mans would still be banging rocks together, left to your own devices.
More on Core Rope Memory at 22:00 ish.
A little earlier, one of the software guys remarks that they were just making it up as they went along.
Computer spec at 17:00 ish.
And this is where it all started: the traitorous 8.
You can all thank Shockley for being such a crap manager.
Originally posted by NickFitz
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He'll be pleased to know the software development industry has continued in this proud tradition to the present day 
The making of that core rope memory still has me fascinated. Those "girls" were really talented.
In one of those vids, someone asks why the computer was potted.
The answer being that originally they weren't but on one of the orbital trials, someone managed to urinate on an unpotted computer, which had dire results on its operation.
And here's another page about Core Rope Memory with clearer pics of the rope itself.
http://drhart.ucoz.com/index/core_memory/0-123
There's PDP8, and PDP11, ASR33 and all sorts in this one:
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