The LVDC
The Launch Vehicle Digital Computer or the LVDC was the computer that, among other functions, provided autopilot in the Saturn V rocket used in the Apollo missions. Designed and manufactured by IBM, it was capable of executing 12190 instructions per second. It had a master clock speed of 2.048 MHz, but since operations were performed bit-serially, meaning a simple operation like addition took 168 clock cycles to complete. A few other instructions like division or multiplication took several multiples of this. Compared to, say, a 2012-era microprocessor, which could execute 4 instructions per clock cycle at 3 GHz, meaning 12 million instructions per second, the LVDC is a million times slower.
Since reliability is a major concern in something like a space program, the LVDC used triple-redundant logic and a voting system. There were three identical logic systems, each of which was split into a seven-stage pipeline. At every stage in the pipeline, the system would take a majority vote of the results, with the most popular result getting passed on to the next stage. As a result, the reliability was an estimated 99.6% in 250 operating hours. The computer itself weighed 32.9 kilograms and consumed 137W during operation.
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| The LVDC from the Saturn V Instrument Unit technical manual |
Although crude and slow compared to today's technology, this crudeness contributed to its reliability as today's microprocessors are far more sensitive to the extreme conditions encountered in orbit, like cosmic rays and radiation.
Cryptocurrency mining ASICs
An ASIC (Application-specific integrated circuit) is an integrated circuit customized for one particular use, as opposed to general-purpose use. In the world of mining cryptocurrency, where efficiency is everything, ASICs were a logical step, capable of outperforming traditional hardware in both speed and efficiency. They were developed exceptionally quickly, with the market for them quite literally not existing before mining saw the light of day.
Generally, ASICs are only good for mining a specific type of cryptocurrency. Exceptions exist, for example, a chip might be capable of mining both Bitcoin and scrypt, but this is often because the chip package contains two ASICs - one capable of each currency. This means that they are extremely specialized and efficient in the one specific task they're designed to do, but completely useless in anything else.
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| A fairly large ASIC mining setup |
The moral aspects of ASIC mining are quite controversial, however. Due to their specialization, they are yet another source of e-waste we might not need, doing work that might not even be practically useful.
Virtual Boy
Long before the advent of modern virtual reality, Nintendo explored the idea of a stereoscopic game console, which they named the Virtual Boy. It debuted in 1995, when virtual reality was a new, hyped idea, and capitalized on it – but fell short.
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| Japanese Virtual Boy ad, around 1995. Nintendo. |
Its name and appearance do suggest that it is a VR headset, however, that is just how it was marketed. It wasn't an actual attempt at achieving true virtual reality, which set the expectations for it too high. In short, it overpromised and underdelivered. In reality, it was more akin to an upgraded Game Boy paired with a stereoscopic display.
From the angle shown in the ad above, the Virtual Boy kind of looks like a modern VR headset. However, it wasn't actually a headset and didn't feature a strap. Instead, it featured an awkward-to-use table stand, which doesn't look ergonomic to use in the least. It was also semi-portable, running on six AA batteries, which limited its hardware to a not-so-powerful CPU. Instead of the 3D virtual world one would expect from a device like this, it was limited to traditional 2D games using 3D layering tricks to create the illusion of depth.
