In the early 1960s when computers were typically the size of a car, the USAF took on the seemingly impossible task of cramming one into a missile. That missi...
A video about the Minuteman ICBM’s guidance computer by Alexander the ok.
He even made a simulator for it, in case you want to try out what it would have been like to program an ICBM’s guidance computer in the 60’s 😁
Skimmed through the video and will watch at a later date. Absolutely fascinating. It used to work at a Raytheon company (Cossor in HarlowvUK) on kit that had similar electronics, back in the 70s. It was like being back in the factory :-)
When I was in the Royal Artillery (80-97) we had a system called PADS (Precision Azimuth Determining System) that was used for survey of gun positions. It had some fancy gyroscopes inside.
I now know where that originated ;-)
The computer used by the Artillery (the one I was trained on in the 80s) was called FACE and had a magnetic core memory of about 8k
https://nigelef.tripod.com/fc_computer.htm
Yes, they had a million and one things designed to catch your head, knee, elbow, eye etc. What that diagram doesn’t make clear is the bench seat running down the centre for the operators and Command Post Officer (CPO) to sit on. Underneath that were the batteries for FACE, 8 (or possibly 6) great big 12v 100ah lead acid things.
Space was at a premium. In this pic I’m sitting with my back to the teleprinter and Bob Cooper was sitting on the commanders seat - it used to drop down and become a seat for a signaller :-)
This would have been taken about 1983/4
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Skimmed through the video and will watch at a later date. Absolutely fascinating. It used to work at a Raytheon company (Cossor in HarlowvUK) on kit that had similar electronics, back in the 70s. It was like being back in the factory :-)
When I was in the Royal Artillery (80-97) we had a system called PADS (Precision Azimuth Determining System) that was used for survey of gun positions. It had some fancy gyroscopes inside. I now know where that originated ;-)
Ha, that’s interesting. In some sense you’ve been a part of the history of computing.
Glad you liked the video! You might also enjoy Alexander’s video about how the Apollo Guidance Computer got turned into the world’s first digital fly-by-wire system: Digital Fly-By-Wire: The Apollo Guidance Computer’s final gift to the world
The computer used by the Artillery (the one I was trained on in the 80s) was called FACE and had a magnetic core memory of about 8k https://nigelef.tripod.com/fc_computer.htm
It’s wild that it apparently took up quite a chunk of an FV APC’s interior space:
Interesting that the program had to be loaded every time it was switched on, so it didn’t have any permanent storage.
Yes, they had a million and one things designed to catch your head, knee, elbow, eye etc. What that diagram doesn’t make clear is the bench seat running down the centre for the operators and Command Post Officer (CPO) to sit on. Underneath that were the batteries for FACE, 8 (or possibly 6) great big 12v 100ah lead acid things. Space was at a premium. In this pic I’m sitting with my back to the teleprinter and Bob Cooper was sitting on the commanders seat - it used to drop down and become a seat for a signaller :-) This would have been taken about 1983/4