Timeflash

On July 21, 1969 3:56 GMT Neil Armstrong is the first human to set foot on the moon. He says: "A small step for man but a giant leap for mankind"

The landing on the moon is the cumulative result of the space race and fired technological leaps that are unprecedented.

The spacecraft designers however will be reluctant to follow the developments of the computer technology. But the spin-off from the space industry - minituralization - as innovative impulse for is unthinkable is you become to realize it.

Within a few years new consumer products will hit the markets and that will change the face of the consumer's world in an incredible short period. It is only now that designers and consumers start to take the minituralization seriously.

In the software for the Apollo rocket are so many unsureties that a project manager of NASA's lunar lander will say later that is was a miracle that the lander ever came in the neighborhood of the moon. But knowing how software engineers are this could be taken with a "barrel" of salt.

IBM delivered the guidance computer. That one did not comprise of chips but of modules: ULD's (Unit Logical Devices). On a small print were mounted a few miniature sized transistors that made up a logical unit. A few thousand of these circuits gave the on board computer a speed of 9600 operations per second. Memory war 460Kbit and it weighed some more than 120 kilo. All systems were replicated in triple. And the answer that came from the computers would be the "most" correct one. ; the so called "Majority Ruling". With this setup a small mistake can not cause a big accident. Because in space any accident is fatal.