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The Apollo Guidance Computer, which helped steer astronauts to the Moon, was one of the first computers built from integrated circuits: small silicon chips that each carry several electronic components. Until 1965, Apollo was the biggest user of these new chips.

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The computer was designed at the MIT Instrumentation Laboratory from 1962 and built by Raytheon, and one flew in every Apollo command module and lunar module. The chip was still a new invention: Jack Kilby and Robert Noyce had made the first ones in 1958 and 1959. MIT used almost a single type throughout, a simple logic circuit designed by Fairchild Semiconductor, repeated thousands of times. According to the Computer History Museum, Apollo bought some 200,000 of them at 20 to 30 dollars each, and by 1965 the Minuteman missile programme had become the bigger buyer. Orders like these kept the young industry going until prices fell: the average chip cost 50 dollars in 1962 and 2.33 dollars in 1968. The Space Race is often credited with GPS too, but GPS was a separate US Department of Defense project, begun in 1973.

Türkçe oku
Apollo Yönlendirme Bilgisayarı, entegre devrelerle yapılan ilk bilgisayarlardan biriydi ve astronotların Ay'a giden yolu bulmasına yardım etti. Entegre devre, birkaç elektronik parçayı küçük bir silikon çipte bir araya getirir. Apollo, 1965'e kadar bu yeni çiplerin en büyük alıcısıydı.

Bilgisayar 1962'den itibaren MIT'nin Enstrümantasyon Laboratuvarı'nda tasarlandı, üretimini de Raytheon şirketi üstlendi; her Apollo komuta modülünde ve Ay modülünde bir tane vardı. Çip o sırada daha yeni bir icattı: İlk örneklerini 1958 ve 1959'da Jack Kilby ile Robert Noyce yapmıştı. MIT bilgisayarın neredeyse tamamında tek tür çip kullandı: Fairchild Semiconductor'ın tasarladığı basit bir mantık devresi binlerce kez tekrarlandı. Bilgisayar Tarihi Müzesi'ne göre Apollo programı bu çiplerden, tanesi 20–30 dolardan yaklaşık 200.000 adet satın aldı; 1965'e gelindiğinde ise en büyük alıcı Minuteman füze programı olmuştu. Bu tür siparişler, fiyatlar düşene kadar genç sektörü ayakta tuttu: Ortalama bir çipin fiyatı 1962'de 50 dolarken 1968'de 2,33 dolara indi. GPS'in de Uzay Yarışı'nın ürünü olduğu sık sık söylenir; oysa GPS, ABD Savunma Bakanlığı'nın 1973'te başlattığı ayrı bir projeydi.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Space Race
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