Examining circuit boards from the Space Shuttle's I/O Processor
An examination of the hardware components of the Space Shuttle's I/O Processor, focusing on its unique multi-threaded architecture and early computing design. The author details the function of specific circuit boards used for network interfacing and microcode storage.
Why it matters
It offers a deep dive into the engineering history of space exploration, showcasing the complexity of pre-microprocessor computing systems.
The Space Shuttle's five 1 general-purpose computers played a critical role in each flight: controlling the engines, monitoring thousands of sensors, displaying data to the astronauts, and navigating the Shuttle. Each computer consisted of two 60-pound aluminum-alloy boxes: the box on the right is the CPU, a 32-bit processor that executed 420,000 instructions per second. These computers were designed before microprocessors became popular, so the processor was built from multiple boards crammed with simple chips and they used magnetic core memory rather than DRAM chips.
The article is a technical historical analysis with no political or social bias.
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