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GMB · 22nd Nov 2018, 1:31 pm

My understanding of why space computers appear stone-age has a lot to do with the time it took to test and certify them, and also the bizarre architectures used to make them robust enough to work in space.

I am sure a better machine could have been built out of more complex gates that were available at that time, but then it would probably have broken down en-route.

On 1's complement, it has advantages in signal processing calculations because negating a number always changes the sign, and also negating is faster because there is no carry propagation.

22nd Nov 2018, 1:31 pm	#9
GMB Dekatron Join Date: Aug 2003 Location: near Reading (and sometimes Torquay) Posts: 3,094	Re: Apollo Guidance Computer My understanding of why space computers appear stone-age has a lot to do with the time it took to test and certify them, and also the bizarre architectures used to make them robust enough to work in space. I am sure a better machine could have been built out of more complex gates that were available at that time, but then it would probably have broken down en-route. On 1's complement, it has advantages in signal processing calculations because negating a number always changes the sign, and also negating is faster because there is no carry propagation.