The Apollo Computers

I love Apollo. For me and many others one of the most interesting aspects of the whole project was the Computer Hardware created for the missions..

They were some of the first integrated circuit based computers.

They were made by manually wire wrapping each circuit and then potting the whole thing in epoxy.

They used hand woven memory.

They were remarkable.

I've had the great fortune of viewing some of this hardware in person during a visit to and tour of the DFJ headquarters on Sand Hill Road. All but one of the images here are from my photos from that visit.

Thankfully I'm not the only one interested in the history of this device and there is now a wealth of great detailed technical information about it out there including many folks who have made replicas. I've collected all the resources I've found so far and collected them here. I will update this list as I find more.

Here is the Source Code on Github

Here are the schematics

Step by step instructions to build your own for $3000

Here is an online simulator

Here is a PDF presentation with lots of detail on the physical construction

"The Ultimate" Apollo Guidance Computer Talk

X-Ray Analysis and other reverse engineering

Misc. Notes

Video about Rope Memory Modules