The Other Side of Moore’s Law: The Apollo Guidance Computer, the Integrated Circuit, and the Microelectronics Revolution, 1962–1975

Abstract

The decision by the designers of the Apollo Guidance Computer to use the newly invented silicon integrated circuit as its basic electronic component has led to a widely held belief that the Apollo program was the “trigger” for the revolution in microelectronics. We do know that microelectronics progressed from simple devices in the early 1960s to powerful microprocessors on a single chip by 1972, exactly paralleling the US manned space program from Mercury to Apollo. We also know that there was a close relationship between the needs of military and aerospace customers and the commercial electronics industry, and that this relationship was in force well before the Apollo program was conceived. This chapter examines connections between NASA and the innovative culture of “Silicon Valley,” and explores the question of whether Apollo drove the advances in microelectronics, or the opposite: that Apollo was enabled by advances that were proceeding independently. (Paul E. Ceruzzi)