# Modern cell phone vs.  Lunar Lander computer

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-cell-phone-vs-lunar-lander-computer/760772>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [July 24, 2016, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-cell-phone-vs-lunar-lander-computer/760772 "2016-07-24T14:26:33Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![joema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a9adbd/32.png) [@joema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joema)\
**Post date:** [July 25, 2016, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-cell-phone-vs-lunar-lander-computer/760772/21 "2016-07-25T14:28:19Z")

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> [@Francis\_Vaughan](#):
>
> …Steve Bales got the Medal of Freedom however. But Jack was a real star. The story of the 1201/1202 errors is one I used to tell my software engineering classes about. It was a perfect exemplar of how extrinsic matters can affect software. If I were teaching operating systems, the design of the AGC real time kernel would be right up there, and again, 1201/1202 a core example.

Jack Garman receiving NASA awards for his work during the Apollo 11 mission. Also shown is the hand-written reference sheet he devised after a failed simulation just prior to the mission. He and Steve Bales referenced this during the landing: [https://joema.smugmug.com/Aerospace/Jack-Garman-Apollo-11/n-NVmMvz/](https://joema.smugmug.com/Aerospace/Jack-Garman-Apollo-11/n-NVmMvz/)

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**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\
**Post date:** [July 25, 2016, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-cell-phone-vs-lunar-lander-computer/760772/22 "2016-07-25T14:43:38Z")

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> [@t-bonham@scc.net](#):
>
> To quote Seymour Cray himself: _“Anyone can build a fast CPU. The trick is to build a fast system.”_

yep. PC architectures have typically had fast CPUs with slow I/O. about a decade ago, you could still pay tens of thousands of dollars for an SGI workstation with a MIPS CPU which would get its ass handed to it by the contemporary AMD and Intel chips. But if your workload demanded high I/O performance, the SGI system architecture (XIO) was head and shoulders above.

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