Apollo's Historic Integrated Circuits

Did you know the Apollo Guidance Computer used the first commercially available integrated circuit? Computers of the fifties and sixties were room-sized machines that relied on huge arrays of relatively large vacuum tubes to function; that was until the integrated circuit was pioneered in 1958 and ‘59, miniaturizing the technology to the point where it could feasibly fit in a package small enough to fit Apollo spacecraft.

Fairchild, specifically, was responsible for the integrated circuits that flew on Apollo. They were mass produced using the planar process, which allowed a circuit to be “printed” on to thin silicon wafers using lithography - the same method we use for circuits today. This advance revolutionized the computing industry, giving birth to Silicon Valley and the world we know today.

Sold as the Micrologic Type G Integrated Circuit, Fairchild produced ICs in “cans” for the Block I AGC, which had a single logic gate. This was then replaced by dual-gate flat-pack ICs, which doubled the computing power in the Block II AGC.