Im one of the original creators of the memory modules. We were so happy to find out about your work. Thank you for keeping this great part of history alive!
Yes, I always have those ladies in mind when think about AGC. I would love they find one and interview her. They must have been very proud when Apollo landed.
it was surely an important task they have every right to be proud of but I also wouldn't be too surprised if they said "weaving is weaving", day to day it might not have mattered so much is it carpet or computer parts
Huge props to the auction house and the previous owner for letting you read the memory modules. Sure it was only a minor risk but they didn’t have to say yes. ❤
I supposed that your video came out before the auction. Perhaps that is incorrect. I think many Apollo fans watch your channel, so if they had advance notice of the auction, that would have been publicity for the auction. The auction might have attracted bidders that otherwise would not have known of it. Still, nice of them to let you to readout the memories.
I remember 2 of 3 people where I worked wiring and repairing memory cores like these about 40 years ago. Obviously they must have had a method of reading the cores. I don't remember what machines they were for, the rest of us were programming PCs and minicomputers.
It’s already 4 years since you started the Apollo series. They spread such valuable knowledge and preserve the great Apollo history. Thanks to you all for making my day just a little better. Again and again.
honestly i think NASA was a complete failure and the main reason we only went to the moon , the whole agency was a government propaganda machine and they achieved so little with NASA that it is not surprising at all that people think the moon landings were fake personally i think they were real but purely done to boost the us presidents poll numbers at the time of launch , the total achievements of nasa over the last 60 years are honestly laughable
Ohhh the old Paraty wires calculations! That old chestnut🤪😜🤣🤣some people run on 24volt whilst your average earthling runs on 6 volts! SERIOUSLY WHOEVER THOUGHT OF THIS. I wish I had a fraction of the intelligence to fathom fully this, unfortunately I’m totally inhibited!
I’m a tech, I repair old arcade machine game boards & thought I was quite smart, Mike makes me feel like a complete idiot :) and that makes me happy, brilliant work you guys. I’m going to have to re listen/watch the explanation of how this crazy stuff works! Happy Days
I learned to program in CPM when I was 8-10 years old thanks to my father handing me a book and letting me at his Sanyo MBC1000. (Not that I've done any serious programming since I was 17) I had bumped into Octal a few times but never understood why anyone would want to use it. Now I understand! I too am going to have to watch this a few times to get my head around it's complexity.
My cousins husband is a pinball nerd and he showed me the guts of one of the earliest electromechanical games and it terrified me. How the hell do you begin to troubleshoot anything. Hundreds of relays I thought the old printing presses I worked on were complex.
The technology for that old 'computer' is quite easy once you are used to it, and having worked on it for a couple of years allowed me to start working on video arcade games and pinball machines of the early 80s, once I moved from computers to digital video games! I made more money servicing the machines on the road, than I did the book keeping computers of the day! And you are smarter than you think if you can troubleshoot and repair the digital boards on the video games!
Mike is just amazing. Honestly, for his work recovering this important American history, I think he should be nominated for a Congressional Space Medal of Honour. What he has done with exceptionally limited resources is just remarkable!!! Damned well done!
@@wallerking2966 I don't know how you deal with folks who can't seem to process (or want to) technical facts and processes. I'd probably be a waste of his time. When I first became aware of 'doubters' (real or troublmakers) I was stunned. Here was one of humankind's greatest technical achievements. It's creators, heroes for me, now had to answer questions that at their root are insulting to their character and arguably even the country. Really ...
Whenever I start getting ideas that I might actually be comparatively intelligent, I watch this channel and it brings me back down to Earth with a bump - and my knuckles go back to dragging on the ground! These guys are seriously smart: rocket scientists, even!
When I first joined IBM I was offered a job operating a tool to "weld" the ends of the wires fed through the memory array frames. I declined the job and took a job in the warehouse instead. Ferrite core memory arrays were assembled in the UK and sent to Portugal to have a single gold wire fed through the centre of the array, They were then shipped back to us in the UK to assemble in the mainframes in production. This was 1969.
If an AI sees "magnetic core memory" on your resume it will decide your experience is out of date. Make sure to call it "NASA technology" instead.@@rainerkaskinen3056
@@jasontiscione1741 Resume scanners are limited in their ability to determine the best software engineers because they rely solely on the information provided in a resume. While resumes can provide valuable insights into an individual's skills and experience, they often fail to capture the full extent of a software engineer's abilities. Technical proficiency and problem-solving skills, which are crucial for success in this field, cannot be accurately assessed through a resume alone. Hiring the best software engineers requires a comprehensive evaluation process that goes beyond resume scanning. Personal interaction, such as phone interviews, allows for a deeper understanding of a candidate's capabilities, communication skills, and cultural fit within the company. These factors are essential for building a cohesive and high-performing team of software engineers. Another limitation of resume scanners is their inability to assess a candidate's potential for growth and adaptability. Software engineering is a rapidly evolving field, and the ability to learn and adapt to new technologies is crucial for long-term success. A resume may not accurately reflect a candidate's willingness and ability to continuously learn and stay updated with the latest industry trends. Additionally, resume scanners cannot evaluate the intangible qualities that make a software engineer exceptional. These qualities include creativity, problem-solving mindset, and the ability to work collaboratively in a team. These attributes are often best assessed through personal interviews, where candidates can showcase their problem-solving abilities and demonstrate their approach to real-world scenarios. Ultimately, relying solely on resume scanners to determine the best software engineers is a flawed approach. To truly identify top talent in this field, a holistic evaluation process that includes personal interaction, technical assessments, and an understanding of the candidate's potential for growth is necessary. By recognizing the limitations of resume scanners and adopting a more comprehensive approach, companies can ensure they are hiring the best software engineers for their teams.
It's experience rather than "smart". Since there isn't much learning material or people who would teach about this they had to do all the research on their own. The average tech university student would probably be able to learn this if there was available material. You don't have to be some kind of "genius" to learn this.
The key to understanding "core" rope memory is that the cores don't store anything themselves. They're actually a clever memory address decoding mechanism. I worked out that if the dual 3-input NOR gate chips used elsewhere in the AGC had been used in address decoders, it would have required many more than in the actual computer.
I know it's been said before but the way those core rope memory modules were made is a true work of art. The Apollo program was cutting-edge engineering and art intertwining in a beautiful symbiotic way. I get goosebumps every time I see a non-potted module.
Unbelievable that such a complex task as going to the moon depended on this technology. I have a board with core memory datacraft dc 38 that I hung onto from the 60s. Just kind of blows my mind when I look at it. Kudos to all those engineers!!
After having my synapses rewired watching you guys decipher the lost programs my subconscious asked me a bewildering question. „Wasn‘t flying to the moon the biggest technical achievement of mankind so far?“ Not knowing where that went I nodded. And then the next question hit home. „Wouldn’t you think, that everything leading to that goal was shrined to let our children know how we put the first human on another piece of rock in our solar system?“ Now I got suspicious but still nodded. the next question will keep me wondering for a while. „What else have we recklessly discarded and how much has simply vanished, never to be fully understood and appreciated?“ You all are doing a very important job that should be liberally funded by universities, museums and government. Thanks for your good work!
We saw the apollo displays at the DC museum and pointed out the guidance systems to my kids and had to explain the memory size vs a phone. Incredible tech back then. Exciting.
Your explanation makes the Core Rope Memory seem like a very simple device, so much so that I was able to understand how it works. You have done something incredibly fascinating!
the circuit for performing correct sequence to read it and to do something useful with the read content were probably way nastier than the physical idea of this memory itself
As a computer scientist who does work in aeronautics, it will relieve the future historians among you to know that me (and all my colleagues) now keep extensive archives and documentation of our code which is, obviously, under version control so that you may even rebuild specific versions in the future. Though I admit, this kind of archaeology sounds like a lot of fun evenings.
Great video! The elevator music explanation of how Core Rope works was brilliant. The design error in the core rope was interesting to hear about, and you set it up perfectly - as soon as you mentioned their optimization to save energy I thought whoops! Half-inhibited cores. Amazing that the original designers missed that given how careful they were about everything they did. Congrats to Mike for getting a working core rope reader up and running!
Love the way old technology most of us never have heard of is presented and explained so detailed that we actually can understand why it was used and how it worked.
I have to say I have a degree in electronic engineering, and do pursue it as a hobby, but your explinations remind me of the *good* lecturers at university, those guys and gals who could convey a complex topic in such a way everyone in the room was engaged and understood. That sir is a serious talent. thank-you.
for several years I worked on 'core' memory assemblies for the old IBM Federal Systems Division (now part of lockheed/martin) They used much smaller versions in Space Shuttle and most avionics computers (A6/7 F111 etc). They were the only nonvolatile memory at that time. The shuttle Challenger computers surived the disaster and the memory contents were still intact
This is just simply mindblowing. You are really actually working on abandoned humankind history. I find it intresting that core memory can keep its state after all the vibrations and space and 60's and all. Amazing!
I will need to watch this explanation of rope core memory many many times before I can fully understand it. Utterly brilliant video. and all kudos to Mike for being able to create a rope core memory reader. Apollo engineers were mind bogglingly good.
I think I just about followed that. A friend's dad who was a professor showed me a ferrite core memory grid when I was about 13 years old, I am 55 now. I love the history of electronics and this video is just as historically important as the programs being recovered from the rope core memory's. Thanks and keep it up.
Man, i dont know what it is, but its absolutely awesome to see a 60 year old bundle of wires light up and identify its self as module B4 from luminary 69. Space race computing is neat, it has a certain mystique and romance.
I work in defense and I'm not gonna lie... I'm not sure we could build this today haha. Asking someone to design and build something like this is going to result in some deer-in-the-headlights looks...
@tychosis that's the funny thing. Not just design, but also assembly. This kinda thing was done by hand. The actual skill of putting these together correctly was built up over years of similar projects. We're 60 years on, there's no one left who can build them if you could find some to design them.
The world needs more Mikes in it..seriously top of his game. Thank you Marc and crew for your chanel and the amazing history you are all not only saving but explaining and bringing to a wide audience.
Amazing video. I enjoyed seeing this actual demonstration of core memory. My dad was an early rocket scientist and he spoke with awe about how blocks of core memory were quite laboriously hand-wired through countless dense blocks of tiny core rings. He worked at White Sands, New Mexico and later on the ICBM missile base at Kwajalein, Marshall Islands (South Pacific). This really clarified for me how this early technology worked.
If I see there is a new CuriousMarc video, I know I am in for a treat! One should recognize how valuable these videos are, marcs explanations of long obsolete technology are easy to follow, and one can feel his passion for the old computers. Then there is Mike, a brilliant engineer, whith a seemingly never ending output of great ideas to make the old apollo systems working and preserving them for the rest of us. Thanks so much guys!
Thank you to the whole team for doing this work to preserve and archive all of this. The world needs more people who are devoted to acquiring and preserving information and less people devoted to war and destruction. Much respect to all of you.
Electronics archeology, that's what this is! Kudos to everyone involved but especially Mike and his gadgets. Nothing too complicated about any of this but it's so far in the past that young people have to re-learn everything and reverse engineer their own tools to access the historical tech!
You people are utterly brilliant, this is absolutely stunning work of the highest caliber. In fact IMHO you all deserve a medal (not to mention generous funding!) for preserving and restoring such important history and artifacts. It also shows the incredible engineering of the fantastic Apollo program and the magic of that era. What a breath of fresh air this is, in the insane world of today. You guys make my day, week, and month - with each fascinating episode. Thank you all!
When Mike got it to read successfully and the module was identified, I absolutely felt that excitement and satisfaction. I'm surprised his arms weren't in the air with excitement.
Hahaha, it was more that I was overcome with an incredible sense of relief. I had spent much of my free time for the better part of a year researching, designing, testing, reviewing, re-reviewing, and re-re-reviewing this thing -- and I had "deadline" (an opportunity for reading ropes that would not come again) for getting it working that was only about a month and a half away.
Thanks for the deep explanation of core-rope memory and how it functions. I've read of it and about it since I was a kid growing up in the 70's, but I'd never seen a detailed explanation of how it actually functioned, anywhere until this video. I watched it twice to make sure I understood it!
Insanely ingenious! What a brilliant video; I don't know whether to be more impressed with the inventors of rope memory or Mike for figuring it out and creating the reader. I'm old enough to remember the earliest days of space exploration, and to have used a computer with core memory in my first job, but I always assumed rope memory was simpler.
I love the perversity of having a Mitutoyo ruler scaled in inches, and a Moore & Wright ruler scaled in cm....... But nonsense aside...Mike is a true marvel. A properly smart chap. And yes, Boeing need him!
I can't wait for the day when you release the video where Mike finally found the explanation for the 1202 bug and why he expected they should have crashed. *Edit* I meant the effect of the 1202 on AGC.
It's explained in great detail in Don Eyles book, which I just read... Basically too many subroutine calls with insufficient time to run all of them, before going back to the beginning of the loop.
@@fredfred2363I can't find it again but I was referring to a video where Mike said after acquiring the CDU to reproduce the 1202 that it's more complicated and there were more possibilities for them to crash instead of landing.
Just amazing how much knowledge went into just these modules and how many disciplines were involved figuring out the core ring materials and all the wires doing their bit. And then decades later more skills in hard and software to read back these modules. Awesome!
I didn't realize you were going to have to auction off the AGC. Wish y'all could've kept it. But the work y'all have done to preserve this extremely important piece of computing history is very much appreciated!
You tickle my brain in a way that no one else has. I'm absolutely in love with all these amazing explanations and the wizardry that Mike brings to every project. Thank you for sharing with us.
Blows my mind....flying to the moon and back on this tech. When you think of all th possible failure points these missions had, amazing that every mission wasn't an Apollo 13 like mission.
It is pretty crazy how technology has advanced and become available. People like Mike can just design custom boards with advanced modules like FPGA's and then put it in a 3D printed case and interface and run all the software they can imagine.
Your videos and explanations are awesome. In reality I understand about 5% of this but listening to and watching your videos makes me feel like I understand at least double that, maybe even 11 or 12%! Keep them coming, love it.
The efficiency these engineers achieved decades ago is just amazing. Manufacturing non corruptable programs is just mind boggling with no error correction just using core rope memory.
Am I the only one feeling actually exhausted after seeing this? There is always someone being more smart, sure, but this episode made it quite clear how much more.
I'm envisioning Mike chugging maple syrup from a chalice while grinding away at the code. This was a great video, thank you so much for putting it together!
Fascinating. So the information isn't stored in the core itself like normal 'core memory', but rather in the wiring. The cores just provide a way to detect how the wiring was done for a particular address. In standard core memory, you could accidently erase the entire thing by exposing it to a strong magnet. But this memory, you would just reset it and then be able to read the 'wiring' all over again. Very clever.
This series is just some of the best content on youtube. Always been fascinated by the Apollo programme, I'm getting to see stuff I never thought I would ever see, Thank you for sharing, 😍
It's fascinating to see the explanation and then compare it to it's replacement of microchips that serve the same purpose. But many folks don't know that early chip technology from the early 60's was quite secretive, even though it was developed for missiles such as Atlas ( I have seen early chip examples. General Dynamics used to sell off faulty production chips for use as tie clips and cuff links as well, to employees, my step father in law being one of them.) Rope memory of this type was extraordinary, and clearly the top of the line for it's time period. It's wonderful to fully understand the function of it even though it's now very much beyond obsolete, but to watch it still work when powered up more than 55 years later, is awe inspiring.
I only understand what you are portraying to a disappointingly low level but I enjoy watching the dazzling intellects bounce off each other. Thank you for sharing all this series of videos. The back room man hours involved might almost rival those of the original project package. ❤
Bravo Mike. Remarkable, I always wanted to know how core memory worked. Whilst a grad at HP I cleaned out a store cupboard in a sales office and found a board of it, and had to ask someone what it was!
I wonder if you could power the whole thing from USB-C with a fancy power-delivery controller? With 60 watts of power, I wonder if that could replace the external supply? Of course, you'd need a suitable laptop up to the task of providing that much power. Thanks for doing this definitive explanation of how core rope works. It's obvious now how much hand-waving around this topic has persisted up to now. Like most things around this, it's just amazing it works at all. So much analog at work here inside the digital computer.
Serious nerdgasms with this. From Apollo geniuses and mastercrafters to Mike being able to to reverse-engineer all of that with minimal information available.
192 bits per core. I never heard of that before. I started learning "Computers?" and "Programming?" in 1968. I knew about cores but not about core rope memory. May be a secret at that time? Men you are geniuses.
Just liking this video with a thumbs up does it an injustice. What a fascinating story and how wonderful it was that you were able to recover the AGC programs from the rope core memory and actually run it. Simply brilliant. Thank you for sharing this. Edit: Even better that you explained the inhibit parity problem. A great way to get to the core of the problem... or should I say - The problem of the core. What you also might call learning the ropes.
Im one of the original creators of the memory modules. We were so happy to find out about your work. Thank you for keeping this great part of history alive!
The seamstresses who wove the rope core memory by hand were incredible. Total unsung heroes of the Apollo Program.
In an April Fools edition of Byte Magazine in the 80's there was an ad to make money at home by stringing core memory.
Yes, I always have those ladies in mind when think about AGC. I would love they find one and interview her. They must have been very proud when Apollo landed.
it was surely an important task they have every right to be proud of but I also wouldn't be too surprised if they said "weaving is weaving", day to day it might not have mattered so much is it carpet or computer parts
Huge props to the auction house and the previous owner for letting you read the memory modules. Sure it was only a minor risk but they didn’t have to say yes. ❤
And the CHM and the MIT museum. We need more museums like these!
True, but in the case of the auction house, it was also free publicity.
@@fredknox2781 And if something unforeseen happened, damaged merchandise.
Where did you see them publicizing it? I don’t think they ever talked about it.
I supposed that your video came out before the auction. Perhaps that is incorrect. I think many Apollo fans watch your channel, so if they had advance notice of the auction, that would have been publicity for the auction. The auction might have attracted bidders that otherwise would not have known of it. Still, nice of them to let you to readout the memories.
You just never know when you need a rope core memory reader.
I have this mosquito encased amber...
Let the Dinosaurs walk again.
I remember 2 of 3 people where I worked wiring and repairing memory cores like these about 40 years ago. Obviously they must have had a method of reading the cores. I don't remember what machines they were for, the rest of us were programming PCs and minicomputers.
A portable one, no less ...
A usb memory reader that can read the oldest memory out there
Needed one just the other day.
I'm hoping Lenovo adds a core rope slot to the next Thinkpad
Apple is on the search for the next proprietary hardware they can make some money on, after that whole EU USB-C debacle....
@@Thisandthat8908 how about a proprietary screen that you can only view using the new Apple $5000 VR glasses ?
It was very disappointing when they took out the core rope ultrabay slot after the T420.
I think the framework 16 laptops Expansion module bay could fit maybe 50kb of core rope memory 😄
LOL, the emperor's new screen ;-) @@bigbaddms
It’s already 4 years since you started the Apollo series. They spread such valuable knowledge and preserve the great Apollo history. Thanks to you all for making my day just a little better. Again and again.
honestly i think NASA was a complete failure and the main reason we only went to the moon , the whole agency was a government propaganda machine and they achieved so little with NASA that it is not surprising at all that people think the moon landings were fake personally i think they were real but purely done to boost the us presidents poll numbers at the time of launch , the total achievements of nasa over the last 60 years are honestly laughable
Ohhh the old Paraty wires calculations! That old chestnut🤪😜🤣🤣some people run on 24volt whilst your average earthling runs on 6 volts! SERIOUSLY WHOEVER THOUGHT OF THIS. I wish I had a fraction of the intelligence to fathom fully this, unfortunately I’m totally inhibited!
I’m a tech, I repair old arcade machine game boards & thought I was quite smart, Mike makes me feel like a complete idiot :) and that makes me happy, brilliant work you guys. I’m going to have to re listen/watch the explanation of how this crazy stuff works! Happy Days
I learned to program in CPM when I was 8-10 years old thanks to my father handing me a book and letting me at his Sanyo MBC1000. (Not that I've done any serious programming since I was 17)
I had bumped into Octal a few times but never understood why anyone would want to use it. Now I understand!
I too am going to have to watch this a few times to get my head around it's complexity.
My cousins husband is a pinball nerd and he showed me the guts of one of the earliest electromechanical games and it terrified me. How the hell do you begin to troubleshoot anything. Hundreds of relays I thought the old printing presses I worked on were complex.
The technology for that old 'computer' is quite easy once you are used to it, and having worked on it for a couple of years allowed me to start working on video arcade games and pinball machines of the early 80s, once I moved from computers to digital video games! I made more money servicing the machines on the road, than I did the book keeping computers of the day!
And you are smarter than you think if you can troubleshoot and repair the digital boards on the video games!
@@giusdbg That helps, the data is in the wiring not the cores..Brill Ta!!
@@NotProFishing Electromechanical pinballs are amazing :)
This video makes all the vintage HP equipment repair videos look nice and easy.
Thanks for the exhaustive explanation of all the magnetic magic, Marc.
My thoughts exactly. After this one I’m going to relax repairing an HP instrument that has only 10 faults in it. It will be a walk in the park ;-)
I'm the opposite. This is one of the videos I understand. But this probably due to my lack of electrical engineering knowledge.
@@CuriousMarc Like a HP5342A with a broken sampler, which requires you first design and build a wire bonder 😵💫
Mike is just amazing. Honestly, for his work recovering this important American history, I think he should be nominated for a Congressional Space Medal of Honour. What he has done with exceptionally limited resources is just remarkable!!! Damned well done!
Yes! Agree. Preserving Apollo history. Give them a medal.
Presidential medal of freedom more likely since the Medal of Honor is for military gallantry
@@Pwnulolumad I believe the Space Medal of Honour is more open than the CMH.
Wonder what Mike would say to the people who say we never went to the moon.
@@wallerking2966 I don't know how you deal with folks who can't seem to process (or want to) technical facts and processes. I'd probably be a waste of his time.
When I first became aware of 'doubters' (real or troublmakers) I was stunned. Here was one of humankind's greatest technical achievements. It's creators, heroes for me, now had to answer questions that at their root are insulting to their character and arguably even the country. Really ...
“We will explain what they do in painful detail later” - love it! This is why we tune in for every video! Thank you Mark, Mike, Ken, etc.
Whenever I start getting ideas that I might actually be comparatively intelligent, I watch this channel and it brings me back down to Earth with a bump - and my knuckles go back to dragging on the ground! These guys are seriously smart: rocket scientists, even!
Yeah me too. After these I usually go find a flat earth video to feel like a flippin genius again! 😁
When I first joined IBM I was offered a job operating a tool to "weld" the ends of the wires fed through the memory array frames. I declined the job and took a job in the warehouse instead. Ferrite core memory arrays were assembled in the UK and sent to Portugal to have a single gold wire fed through the centre of the array, They were then shipped back to us in the UK to assemble in the mainframes in production. This was 1969.
I cant imagine how smart Mike and Marc are, it’s beyond belief! Guru level 1337!!!
They're smart but they'll never get past AI resume screeners with this stuff.
I’m not sure what you mean, but thank’s for the feedback anyhow👍🏻
If an AI sees "magnetic core memory" on your resume it will decide your experience is out of date. Make sure to call it "NASA technology" instead.@@rainerkaskinen3056
@@jasontiscione1741 Resume scanners are limited in their ability to determine the best software engineers because they rely solely on the information provided in a resume. While resumes can provide valuable insights into an individual's skills and experience, they often fail to capture the full extent of a software engineer's abilities. Technical proficiency and problem-solving skills, which are crucial for success in this field, cannot be accurately assessed through a resume alone.
Hiring the best software engineers requires a comprehensive evaluation process that goes beyond resume scanning. Personal interaction, such as phone interviews, allows for a deeper understanding of a candidate's capabilities, communication skills, and cultural fit within the company. These factors are essential for building a cohesive and high-performing team of software engineers.
Another limitation of resume scanners is their inability to assess a candidate's potential for growth and adaptability. Software engineering is a rapidly evolving field, and the ability to learn and adapt to new technologies is crucial for long-term success. A resume may not accurately reflect a candidate's willingness and ability to continuously learn and stay updated with the latest industry trends.
Additionally, resume scanners cannot evaluate the intangible qualities that make a software engineer exceptional. These qualities include creativity, problem-solving mindset, and the ability to work collaboratively in a team. These attributes are often best assessed through personal interviews, where candidates can showcase their problem-solving abilities and demonstrate their approach to real-world scenarios.
Ultimately, relying solely on resume scanners to determine the best software engineers is a flawed approach. To truly identify top talent in this field, a holistic evaluation process that includes personal interaction, technical assessments, and an understanding of the candidate's potential for growth is necessary. By recognizing the limitations of resume scanners and adopting a more comprehensive approach, companies can ensure they are hiring the best software engineers for their teams.
It's experience rather than "smart". Since there isn't much learning material or people who would teach about this they had to do all the research on their own. The average tech university student would probably be able to learn this if there was available material. You don't have to be some kind of "genius" to learn this.
Mike is a treasure.
I wish I had the level of ingenuity that the engineers who made Apollo possible had, I am but a humble engineer standing on the shoulders of giants
The key to understanding "core" rope memory is that the cores don't store anything themselves. They're actually a clever memory address decoding mechanism. I worked out that if the dual 3-input NOR gate chips used elsewhere in the AGC had been used in address decoders, it would have required many more than in the actual computer.
I know it's been said before but the way those core rope memory modules were made is a true work of art. The Apollo program was cutting-edge engineering and art intertwining in a beautiful symbiotic way. I get goosebumps every time I see a non-potted module.
Unbelievable that such a complex task as going to the moon depended on this technology. I have a board with core memory datacraft dc 38 that I hung onto from the 60s. Just kind of blows my mind when I look at it. Kudos to all those engineers!!
In genuine awe of the knowledge, passion and skill of Mike just now.
After having my synapses rewired watching you guys decipher the lost programs my subconscious asked me a bewildering question. „Wasn‘t flying to the moon the biggest technical achievement of mankind so far?“ Not knowing where that went I nodded. And then the next question hit home. „Wouldn’t you think, that everything leading to that goal was shrined to let our children know how we put the first human on another piece of rock in our solar system?“ Now I got suspicious but still nodded. the next question will keep me wondering for a while. „What else have we recklessly discarded and how much has simply vanished, never to be fully understood and appreciated?“
You all are doing a very important job that should be liberally funded by universities, museums and government. Thanks for your good work!
I'd love to know what the engineers who worked on the Apollo program think of Mike's core rope reader!
The hours of craftsmanship that went into these old analogue systems. Full respect
Mike (and everyone else in this band of merry pranksters) is unstoppable, relentless even. And we are all the better for it. 👍
We saw the apollo displays at the DC museum and pointed out the guidance systems to my kids and had to explain the memory size vs a phone. Incredible tech back then. Exciting.
It’s just mind blowing Mikes dedication into a so complex project like this! ❤
Your explanation makes the Core Rope Memory seem like a very simple device, so much so that I was able to understand how it works. You have done something incredibly fascinating!
the circuit for performing correct sequence to read it and to do something useful with the read content were probably way nastier than the physical idea of this memory itself
As a computer scientist who does work in aeronautics, it will relieve the future historians among you to know that me (and all my colleagues) now keep extensive archives and documentation of our code which is, obviously, under version control so that you may even rebuild specific versions in the future. Though I admit, this kind of archaeology sounds like a lot of fun evenings.
We should call this Archeoeletronics, and this man is one the top experts on one of the most important spacecraft ever made.
This whole series is immeasurably valuable.
Great video! The elevator music explanation of how Core Rope works was brilliant. The design error in the core rope was interesting to hear about, and you set it up perfectly - as soon as you mentioned their optimization to save energy I thought whoops! Half-inhibited cores. Amazing that the original designers missed that given how careful they were about everything they did. Congrats to Mike for getting a working core rope reader up and running!
Love the way old technology most of us never have heard of is presented and explained so detailed that we actually can understand why it was used and how it worked.
I can't even conceive the level genius of the engineers that dreamed this all up and made it work!!
Was always curious how core rope memory worked but always struggled to wrap my head around it. Your explanation and visualization was fantastic.
I have to say I have a degree in electronic engineering, and do pursue it as a hobby, but your explinations remind me of the *good* lecturers at university, those guys and gals who could convey a complex topic in such a way everyone in the room was engaged and understood. That sir is a serious talent. thank-you.
The more I see what Mike gets up to, the more impressed I am.
Your videos are absolutely astounding. The work your team is doing is so historically valuable.
Mike & Marc, I am in absolute awe of your dedication and skill level. Well done Mike on a superb design. Simply fantastic.
for several years I worked on 'core' memory assemblies for the old IBM Federal Systems Division (now part of lockheed/martin) They used much smaller versions in Space Shuttle and most avionics computers (A6/7 F111 etc). They were the only nonvolatile memory at that time. The shuttle Challenger computers surived the disaster and the memory contents were still intact
I worked on 'core' memory assemblies
@@jimmyschmidt14I worked on ‘core’ memory assemblies
This is just simply mindblowing. You are really actually working on abandoned humankind history. I find it intresting that core memory can keep its state after all the vibrations and space and 60's and all. Amazing!
It really awes me just how much those engineers were able to do with so little resources. I’m a mere 21 years old but this stuff still blows me away!
I've just finished rewatching the whole saga so far, and then this comes out! Perfect timing!
The more I see what Mike gets up to, the more impressed I am.
I will need to watch this explanation of rope core memory many many times before I can fully understand it. Utterly brilliant video. and all kudos to Mike for being able to create a rope core memory reader. Apollo engineers were mind bogglingly good.
I think I just about followed that. A friend's dad who was a professor showed me a ferrite core memory grid when I was about 13 years old, I am 55 now. I love the history of electronics and this video is just as historically important as the programs being recovered from the rope core memory's. Thanks and keep it up.
Man, i dont know what it is, but its absolutely awesome to see a 60 year old bundle of wires light up and identify its self as module B4 from luminary 69. Space race computing is neat, it has a certain mystique and romance.
I work in defense and I'm not gonna lie... I'm not sure we could build this today haha. Asking someone to design and build something like this is going to result in some deer-in-the-headlights looks...
@tychosis that's the funny thing. Not just design, but also assembly. This kinda thing was done by hand. The actual skill of putting these together correctly was built up over years of similar projects. We're 60 years on, there's no one left who can build them if you could find some to design them.
The world needs more Mikes in it..seriously top of his game. Thank you Marc and crew for your chanel and the amazing history you are all not only saving but explaining and bringing to a wide audience.
Amazing video. I enjoyed seeing this actual demonstration of core memory. My dad was an early rocket scientist and he spoke with awe about how blocks of core memory were quite laboriously hand-wired through countless dense blocks of tiny core rings. He worked at White Sands, New Mexico and later on the ICBM missile base at Kwajalein, Marshall Islands (South Pacific). This really clarified for me how this early technology worked.
Gorgeous: the most comprehensive explanation of the core rope memory. Ended all the doubts I always had. Congratulations people.
If I see there is a new CuriousMarc video, I know I am in for a treat! One should recognize how valuable these videos are, marcs explanations of long obsolete technology are easy to follow, and one can feel his passion for the old computers. Then there is Mike, a brilliant engineer, whith a seemingly never ending output of great ideas to make the old apollo systems working and preserving them for the rest of us. Thanks so much guys!
Core rope memory t-shirt needed .. amazing episode as always looking forward to many recoveries of historic softwares
The genius of this tech is its simplicity and the result is incredible reliability.
Thank you to the whole team for doing this work to preserve and archive all of this. The world needs more people who are devoted to acquiring and preserving information and less people devoted to war and destruction. Much respect to all of you.
My brain hurts, which means I'm watching CuriousMarc.
Same here ! lol
Electronics archeology, that's what this is! Kudos to everyone involved but especially Mike and his gadgets. Nothing too complicated about any of this but it's so far in the past that young people have to re-learn everything and reverse engineer their own tools to access the historical tech!
You people are utterly brilliant, this is absolutely stunning work of the highest caliber. In fact IMHO you all deserve a medal (not to mention generous funding!) for preserving and restoring such important history and artifacts. It also shows the incredible engineering of the fantastic Apollo program and the magic of that era. What a breath of fresh air this is, in the insane world of today. You guys make my day, week, and month - with each fascinating episode. Thank you all!
When Mike got it to read successfully and the module was identified, I absolutely felt that excitement and satisfaction. I'm surprised his arms weren't in the air with excitement.
Hahaha, it was more that I was overcome with an incredible sense of relief. I had spent much of my free time for the better part of a year researching, designing, testing, reviewing, re-reviewing, and re-re-reviewing this thing -- and I had "deadline" (an opportunity for reading ropes that would not come again) for getting it working that was only about a month and a half away.
I've restored an old seeburg juke-box, and the memory that holds the selections is exactly that way, except it's made with big cores.
Thanks for the deep explanation of core-rope memory and how it functions. I've read of it and about it since I was a kid growing up in the 70's, but I'd never seen a detailed explanation of how it actually functioned, anywhere until this video. I watched it twice to make sure I understood it!
I have been struggling for years trying to understand how exactly core rope memory works. Amazing explanation and demonstration. Thank you so much!!!
Insanely ingenious! What a brilliant video; I don't know whether to be more impressed with the inventors of rope memory or Mike for figuring it out and creating the reader. I'm old enough to remember the earliest days of space exploration, and to have used a computer with core memory in my first job, but I always assumed rope memory was simpler.
I like to think I’m a somewhat intelligent person, but what Marc, Mike, and Master Ken can do with these Apollo systems is just mind-boggling.
My sentiments exactly.
I love the perversity of having a Mitutoyo ruler scaled in inches, and a Moore & Wright ruler scaled in cm.......
But nonsense aside...Mike is a true marvel. A properly smart chap. And yes, Boeing need him!
I can't wait for the day when you release the video where Mike finally found the explanation for the 1202 bug and why he expected they should have crashed.
*Edit* I meant the effect of the 1202 on AGC.
It's explained in great detail in Don Eyles book, which I just read... Basically too many subroutine calls with insufficient time to run all of them, before going back to the beginning of the loop.
@@fredfred2363I can't find it again but I was referring to a video where Mike said after acquiring the CDU to reproduce the 1202 that it's more complicated and there were more possibilities for them to crash instead of landing.
All those wires and the resulting logic reminds some words in the 'Hokey Cokey': In, out, in, out, you shake it all about. . Chapeau Mike!
Just amazing how much knowledge went into just these modules and how many disciplines were involved figuring out the core ring materials and all the wires doing their bit.
And then decades later more skills in hard and software to read back these modules.
Awesome!
This gives one a whole new level of respect for everyone involved in this phase of the Apollo missions. Mind blown.
I didn't realize you were going to have to auction off the AGC. Wish y'all could've kept it. But the work y'all have done to preserve this extremely important piece of computing history is very much appreciated!
Well, the price was nothing to sneeze at. Imagine how much interesting stuff they can buy and repair (and make interesting videos) for that money.
You tickle my brain in a way that no one else has. I'm absolutely in love with all these amazing explanations and the wizardry that Mike brings to every project. Thank you for sharing with us.
Blows my mind....flying to the moon and back on this tech. When you think of all th possible failure points these missions had, amazing that every mission wasn't an Apollo 13 like mission.
Mike ist simply doing things he Loves, its great that people like him can have the chance to do so.
I kind of, almost understood some of this. Fascinating.
It is pretty crazy how technology has advanced and become available. People like Mike can just design custom boards with advanced modules like FPGA's and then put it in a 3D printed case and interface and run all the software they can imagine.
Mike just built the coolest smart media card reader
"dumb media"
Your videos and explanations are awesome. In reality I understand about 5% of this but listening to and watching your videos makes me feel like I understand at least double that, maybe even 11 or 12%! Keep them coming, love it.
Love your dedication and passion for this project guys. Historians in generations to come will be very grateful.
Amazing. Preservation of obsolete technology that underpinned a developmental leap for our species. Thank you.
The efficiency these engineers achieved decades ago is just amazing. Manufacturing non corruptable programs is just mind boggling with no error correction just using core rope memory.
Fascinating technology! It is amazing that you guys are able to build a tool to read this old memory. So fascinating to watch this.
This is absolutely amazing how your research brought back so much important history. My appreciation for all the hard work!
Am I the only one feeling actually exhausted after seeing this? There is always someone being more smart, sure, but this episode made it quite clear how much more.
Don Eyles book is just excellent! Goes into so much detail, not documented anywhere else.
Along with this channel, the info is amazing.
This should have millions of views, EPIC
Been binging antique computer content. Crazy how less than a decade before computers were still entirely reliant on filling rooms with vacuum tubes.
I'm envisioning Mike chugging maple syrup from a chalice while grinding away at the code. This was a great video, thank you so much for putting it together!
Fascinating. So the information isn't stored in the core itself like normal 'core memory', but rather in the wiring. The cores just provide a way to detect how the wiring was done for a particular address. In standard core memory, you could accidently erase the entire thing by exposing it to a strong magnet. But this memory, you would just reset it and then be able to read the 'wiring' all over again. Very clever.
This series is just some of the best content on youtube. Always been fascinated by the Apollo programme, I'm getting to see stuff I never thought I would ever see, Thank you for sharing, 😍
It's fascinating to see the explanation and then compare it to it's replacement of microchips that serve the same purpose. But many folks don't know that early chip technology from the early 60's was quite secretive, even though it was developed for missiles such as Atlas ( I have seen early chip examples. General Dynamics used to sell off faulty production chips for use as tie clips and cuff links as well, to employees, my step father in law being one of them.) Rope memory of this type was extraordinary, and clearly the top of the line for it's time period. It's wonderful to fully understand the function of it even though it's now very much beyond obsolete, but to watch it still work when powered up more than 55 years later, is awe inspiring.
Mike is freakin brilliant. Marc as well.
I only understand what you are portraying to a disappointingly low level but I enjoy watching the dazzling intellects bounce off each other. Thank you for sharing all this series of videos. The back room man hours involved might almost rival those of the original project package. ❤
Bravo Mike. Remarkable, I always wanted to know how core memory worked. Whilst a grad at HP I cleaned out a store cupboard in a sales office and found a board of it, and had to ask someone what it was!
Hey Mike we cant read core rope memory anymore.... Challenge accepted . Amazing whats possible when someone has this king of passion.
Y’all are just crazies - but it’s amazing that y’all are able to identify, find and then recover and record these artifacts - 👏
Massive well done to Mike, for coming up with the reader.
Amazing Marc! And thanks ever so much for the shoutout! Really need to do a mk2 of that machine. If only there were more hours in the day!😂
Man i'd love to hear some interstellar MIDIs pumped through that pipe organ of yours for these epic space videos... You guys are both amazing!
I wonder if you could power the whole thing from USB-C with a fancy power-delivery controller? With 60 watts of power, I wonder if that could replace the external supply? Of course, you'd need a suitable laptop up to the task of providing that much power.
Thanks for doing this definitive explanation of how core rope works. It's obvious now how much hand-waving around this topic has persisted up to now. Like most things around this, it's just amazing it works at all. So much analog at work here inside the digital computer.
Serious nerdgasms with this. From Apollo geniuses and mastercrafters to Mike being able to to reverse-engineer all of that with minimal information available.
In awe of the skill, knowledge and dedication applied by Mike.
192 bits per core. I never heard of that before. I started learning "Computers?" and "Programming?" in 1968. I knew about cores but not about core rope memory. May be a secret at that time? Men you are geniuses.
Dang - that caddy setup is slick!
Just liking this video with a thumbs up does it an injustice. What a fascinating story and how wonderful it was that you were able to recover the AGC programs from the rope core memory and actually run it. Simply brilliant. Thank you for sharing this. Edit: Even better that you explained the inhibit parity problem. A great way to get to the core of the problem... or should I say - The problem of the core. What you also might call learning the ropes.
@lookmumnocomputer will love the mention (time index 21:00)