10 Questions
How many times more processing power does the latest iPhone have compared to the Apollo 11 computer?
over 100,000 times
The Apollo 11 computer had a user interface similar to today's smartphones.
False
What is the name of the interface used by the Apollo 11 computer?
Display Keyboard (DSKY)
The TI-84 calculator had _______________ times more RAM than the Apollo 11 computer.
32
Match the following calculators with their release years:
TI-73 = 1998 TI-84 = 2004
What was the name of the computer on board Apollo 11?
Apollo Guidance Computer
The Apollo 11 computer could store this entire article in its RAM memory.
False
What does each word in the Apollo Guidance Computer's memory comprise of?
16 binary digits (bits)
The latest phones typically have ________ of RAM.
4GB
Match the following computers with their memory capacity:
Apollo Guidance Computer = 32,768 bits of RAM memory iPhone = 4GB of RAM and 512GB of ROM memory
Study Notes
The Apollo 11 Moon Landing
- The Apollo Guidance Computer (AGC) on board Apollo 11 had 2048 words of RAM, which could store "temporary results" – data that is lost when there is no power.
- Each word comprised 16 binary digits (bits), making a total of 32,768 bits of RAM memory.
- This amount of memory is insufficient to store a single article, let alone thousands of emails, songs, and photographs like modern mobile phones.
Comparison with Modern Technology
- The latest phones typically have 4GB of RAM, which is approximately 1,048,576 times more memory than the Apollo computer had in RAM.
- The iPhone also has up to 512GB of ROM memory, which is more than 7 million times more than that of the guidance computer.
- The iPhone's processor runs at approximately 2490 MHz, making it over 100,000 times more powerful than the Apollo 11 computer, which ran at 0.043 MHz.
Comparison with Calculators
- The Texas Instruments TI-73 calculator, released in 1998, had slightly less ROM but eight times more RAM than the Apollo guidance computer.
- The TI-84 calculator, released in 2004, had 32 times more RAM and more than 14,500 times more ROM than the Apollo computer.
- The calculators, designed for students, were more powerful than the computer that landed man on the moon.
Advantages of Modern Technology in the Moon Landing
- With modern software development tools, the software development time would have been significantly faster.
- The user interface would have been easier to use, potentially reducing stress in critical situations.
This quiz compares the computing power of the Apollo Guidance Computer on board Apollo 11 with modern technology. Learn about the RAM capacity and its limitations. Discover how far we've come in computing technology.
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