Ever looked at your phone charger and thought, ‘Hey, I bet this little guy could fly me to the moon?’ No? Well, buckle up because you and I are about to embark on a wild ride of technological perspective.
It turns out that your modern USB-C charger might just have more processing power than the guidance computer that took Neil Armstrong and his crew to the lunar surface in 1969.
Yes… a CHARGER. Mind blowing, right?
Apple developer Forrest Heller crunched the numbers and found that the Anker PowerPort Atom PD 2 USB-C charger he used for comparison runs at a clock speed of 48 MHz, while the Apollo 11 computer operated at a humble 1.024 MHz. That’s like comparing a race car to a tricycle!
In terms of memory, our trusty charger boasts 8KB of RAM and 128KB of flash memory, compared to the Apollo 11 computer’s 4KB of RAM and 72KB of storage. All in all, Heller estimates that the charger is a whopping 563 times faster, can store nearly twice as many instructions, and has over double the amount of RAM.
But before you start planning your backyard moon mission powered by phone chargers, hold your horses. Heller points out that you’d need four such chargers to replace the four separate computers on board Apollo 11. Plus, there might be a few other teeny tiny factors preventing a USB-C charger from piloting a spaceship.
This fun comparison not only showcases the incredible strides technology has made over the past half-century but also reminds us of the amazing feats achievable with seemingly modest hardware. So next time you plug in your phone, give a little nod to your charger – the unsung hero with the power of a lunar landing tucked inside its compact frame.
#TechFunFact #USBChargerToTheMoon
https://www.theverge.com/tldr/2020/2/11/21133119/usb-c-anker-charger-apollo-11-moon-landing-guidance-computer-more-powerful
