Apollo Core Rope Memory (Apollo Guidance Computer Part 30) 

I have this mosquito encased amber... Let the Dinosaurs walk again.

I remember 2 of 3 people where I worked wiring and repairing memory cores like these about 40 years ago. Obviously they must have had a method of reading the cores. I don't remember what machines they were for, the rest of us were programming PCs and minicomputers.

A portable one, no less ...

A usb memory reader that can read the oldest memory out there

Needed one just the other day.

And the CHM and the MIT museum. We need more museums like these!

True, but in the case of the auction house, it was also free publicity.

@@fredknox2781 And if something unforeseen happened, damaged merchandise.

Where did you see them publicizing it? I don’t think they ever talked about it.

I supposed that your video came out before the auction. Perhaps that is incorrect. I think many Apollo fans watch your channel, so if they had advance notice of the auction, that would have been publicity for the auction. The auction might have attracted bidders that otherwise would not have known of it. Still, nice of them to let you to readout the memories.

Apple is on the search for the next proprietary hardware they can make some money on, after that whole EU USB-C debacle....

@@Thisandthat8908 how about a proprietary screen that you can only view using the new Apple $5000 VR glasses ?

It was very disappointing when they took out the core rope ultrabay slot after the T420.

I think the framework 16 laptops Expansion module bay could fit maybe 50kb of core rope memory 😄

LOL, the emperor's new screen ;-) @@bigbaddms

honestly i think NASA was a complete failure and the main reason we only went to the moon , the whole agency was a government propaganda machine and they achieved so little with NASA that it is not surprising at all that people think the moon landings were fake personally i think they were real but purely done to boost the us presidents poll numbers at the time of launch , the total achievements of nasa over the last 60 years are honestly laughable

Yes! Agree. Preserving Apollo history. Give them a medal.

Presidential medal of freedom more likely since the Medal of Honor is for military gallantry

@@Pwnulolumad I believe the Space Medal of Honour is more open than the CMH.

Right ? Mad genuis to make hardware n software work let alone design and print a board

My thoughts exactly. After this one I’m going to relax repairing an HP instrument that has only 10 faults in it. It will be a walk in the park ;-)

I'm the opposite. This is one of the videos I understand. But this probably due to my lack of electrical engineering knowledge.

@@CuriousMarc Like a HP5342A with a broken sampler, which requires you first design and build a wire bonder 😵‍💫

They're smart but they'll never get past AI resume screeners with this stuff.

I’m not sure what you mean, but thank’s for the feedback anyhow👍🏻

If an AI sees "magnetic core memory" on your resume it will decide your experience is out of date. Make sure to call it "NASA technology" instead.@@rainerkaskinen3056

​@@jasontiscione1741 Resume scanners are limited in their ability to determine the best software engineers because they rely solely on the information provided in a resume. While resumes can provide valuable insights into an individual's skills and experience, they often fail to capture the full extent of a software engineer's abilities. Technical proficiency and problem-solving skills, which are crucial for success in this field, cannot be accurately assessed through a resume alone. Hiring the best software engineers requires a comprehensive evaluation process that goes beyond resume scanning. Personal interaction, such as phone interviews, allows for a deeper understanding of a candidate's capabilities, communication skills, and cultural fit within the company. These factors are essential for building a cohesive and high-performing team of software engineers. Another limitation of resume scanners is their inability to assess a candidate's potential for growth and adaptability. Software engineering is a rapidly evolving field, and the ability to learn and adapt to new technologies is crucial for long-term success. A resume may not accurately reflect a candidate's willingness and ability to continuously learn and stay updated with the latest industry trends. Additionally, resume scanners cannot evaluate the intangible qualities that make a software engineer exceptional. These qualities include creativity, problem-solving mindset, and the ability to work collaboratively in a team. These attributes are often best assessed through personal interviews, where candidates can showcase their problem-solving abilities and demonstrate their approach to real-world scenarios. Ultimately, relying solely on resume scanners to determine the best software engineers is a flawed approach. To truly identify top talent in this field, a holistic evaluation process that includes personal interaction, technical assessments, and an understanding of the candidate's potential for growth is necessary. By recognizing the limitations of resume scanners and adopting a more comprehensive approach, companies can ensure they are hiring the best software engineers for their teams.

It's experience rather than "smart". Since there isn't much learning material or people who would teach about this they had to do all the research on their own. The average tech university student would probably be able to learn this if there was available material. You don't have to be some kind of "genius" to learn this.

I learned to program in CPM when I was 8-10 years old thanks to my father handing me a book and letting me at his Sanyo MBC1000. (Not that I've done any serious programming since I was 17) I had bumped into Octal a few times but never understood why anyone would want to use it. Now I understand! I too am going to have to watch this a few times to get my head around it's complexity.

My cousins husband is a pinball nerd and he showed me the guts of one of the earliest electromechanical games and it terrified me. How the hell do you begin to troubleshoot anything. Hundreds of relays I thought the old printing presses I worked on were complex.

The technology for that old 'computer' is quite easy once you are used to it, and having worked on it for a couple of years allowed me to start working on video arcade games and pinball machines of the early 80s, once I moved from computers to digital video games! I made more money servicing the machines on the road, than I did the book keeping computers of the day! And you are smarter than you think if you can troubleshoot and repair the digital boards on the video games!

@@giusdbg That helps, the data is in the wiring not the cores..Brill Ta!!

@@NotProFishing Electromechanical pinballs are amazing :)

Yeah me too. After these I usually go find a flat earth video to feel like a flippin genius again! 😁

Same here ! lol

Its so unbelievable that I dont believe it. Like most intelligent people.

I worked on 'core' memory assemblies

@@jimmyschmidt14I worked on ‘core’ memory assemblies

The more I see what Mike gets up to, the more impressed I am.

"dumb media"

Well, the price was nothing to sneeze at. Imagine how much interesting stuff they can buy and repair (and make interesting videos) for that money.

the circuit for performing correct sequence to read it and to do something useful with the read content were probably way nastier than the physical idea of this memory itself

@@deang5622 The fixed rope memories are not writable. They are coded at the factory, when the wires are physically woven in or out of a ferrite core. These rope memories were 100% Read only. Only the single 4K module was magnetic core memory, and that one was the only writable module. A RAM stick, if you really think about it.

@@richfileshe said ROM

@@UloPe i know. The fixed rope memories are like ROM carts... The core memory is also a module, which I was then making the comparison to being the first RAM sticks. The two are different parts.

@@richfiles I think they were referencing cartridge like you would see in early video game consoles from the 70s and 80s. Atari and Intellivision were not the first, but predated by another that never really got marketed. The AGC would have predated these things by 1-2 decades. Which is where the fascination on it comes from. That's my guess anyway, they'd have to comment on that for themselves. Its just how I read it.

@@taemien9219 I _know..._ It seems the person I was replying to _deleted their comment._ Note the username I was replying to. Apparently, when I pointed out their error, they decided to delete.

I work in defense and I'm not gonna lie... I'm not sure we could build this today haha. Asking someone to design and build something like this is going to result in some deer-in-the-headlights looks...

@tychosis that's the funny thing. Not just design, but also assembly. This kinda thing was done by hand. The actual skill of putting these together correctly was built up over years of similar projects. We're 60 years on, there's no one left who can build them if you could find some to design them.

Hahaha, it was more that I was overcome with an incredible sense of relief. I had spent much of my free time for the better part of a year researching, designing, testing, reviewing, re-reviewing, and re-re-reviewing this thing -- and I had "deadline" (an opportunity for reading ropes that would not come again) for getting it working that was only about a month and a half away.

My sentiments exactly.

It's explained in great detail in Don Eyles book, which I just read... Basically too many subroutine calls with insufficient time to run all of them, before going back to the beginning of the loop.

​@@fredfred2363I can't find it again but I was referring to a video where Mike said after acquiring the CDU to reproduce the 1202 that it's more complicated and there were more possibilities for them to crash instead of landing.