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To: FJB who wrote (98325)	2/5/2000 9:57:00 PM
From: Tony Viola	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 186894

Bob, thanks, Computers in Spaceflight IBM Corporation received the contract for the Gemini digital computer on April 19, 1962, amounting to $26.6 million. It provided for the construction of the on-board computer and for integration with other spacecraft systems 8. The first machine was in its final testing phase by August 31, 1963, and IBM delivered the last of 20 such machines by December 19659. Engineers at IBM believe that the main reason why their company received the contract was the successful development of a core memory used on the Orbiting Astronautical Observatory 10. One of them, John J. Lenz, said that the contract for Gemini came just at the right time. The best of the engineering teams of the IBM Federal Systems Division plant in Owego, New York were between assignments and were put on the project, increasing its chance for success. Restrictions on size, power, and weight influenced the final form of the computer in terms of its components, speed, and type of memory. The shape and size of the computer was dictated by the design of the spacecraft. It was contained in a box measuring 18.9 inches high by 14.5 inches wide by 12.75 inches deep, weighing 58.98 pounds11. An unpressurized equipment bay to the left of the Gemini commander s seat held the computer, as well as the inertial guidance system power supply and the computer auxiliary power supply. The machine consisted of discrete components, not integrated circuits So, discrete transistors, a bit early for IC's, early 60s. The machine had an instruction cycle of 140 milliseconds, the time it required for an addition. Multiplication took three cycles, or [14] 420 milliseconds, with division requiring double that time14. The arithmetic bit rate was 500 kilocycles, Speedy devil. Still, doesn't sound right. If something is running at 500 KHz (clock?) why so slow for an add? Tony