Its name comes from the Greek word μικρός (pronounced “mikros”) meaning “small”. In Greek numerals it has a value of 40, however, today it is a unit prefix in the metric system defining one-millionth (10−6).
These are in fact so tiny that you can fit several millions of them on a tiny chip, hence the birth of the word: microelectronics.ĭid you know? The micro symbol μ, Mu, is the 12th letter of the Greek alphabet and was derived from ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs meaning “water”.
Five decades later, we find ourselves with the entirety of NASA’s Lunar program processing power in our pockets thanks to the invention of microscopic switches known as transistors. And forget anything you thought you knew about electronics, this module did not rely on transistors, it relied on what was called Rope Core Memory which was essentially wires weaved in specific patterns. Weighing in at 70 lbs, it had 2 Kbits of memory and ran at roughly 2MHz (roughly 1/8th of an Arduino at a fraction of the size and weight). You heard right, half a century ago the Eagle Lander and Saturn V relied on a module called the Apollo Guidance Computer.
With the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11’s moon landing just recently, let’s take a moment to reminisce how mankind first took a foothold on the moon on board a spaceship with less computational power than your smartwatch.