Must be an Audi
#1
06-16-2009, 12:50 PM
Must be an Audi
I forgot where I saw this --
It has been said that modern cars contain more computing power than Apollo 11 that took man to the moon. With features such as electric windows, electric mirrors, and heated seats, it’s not surprising that there are around 50 separate computers controlling in-car displays, satellite navigation, the ABS, air bags, air conditioning, and doorlocks, not to mention the ones controlling engine emissions. Adjusting spark plug rates, fuel injection and the air-to-fuel ratio occurs many, many times per second and the ECU (engine control unit) uses closed loop control to gather data from sensors. A modern ECU might contain a 32bit, 40MHz processor and some of the other components in the ECU are ADCs, DACs, and chips that enable communication speeds of up to 500Kbps.
It has been said that modern cars contain more computing power than Apollo 11 that took man to the moon. With features such as electric windows, electric mirrors, and heated seats, it’s not surprising that there are around 50 separate computers controlling in-car displays, satellite navigation, the ABS, air bags, air conditioning, and doorlocks, not to mention the ones controlling engine emissions. Adjusting spark plug rates, fuel injection and the air-to-fuel ratio occurs many, many times per second and the ECU (engine control unit) uses closed loop control to gather data from sensors. A modern ECU might contain a 32bit, 40MHz processor and some of the other components in the ECU are ADCs, DACs, and chips that enable communication speeds of up to 500Kbps.
#2
06-16-2009, 11:52 PM
Senior Member
Join Date: May 2009
Location: Nation's oldest city, FL (screw you Jamestown)
Posts: 179
Probably better off in off-topic, but yeah, it is amazing to say the least. Kennedy Space center is only 100 minutes away or so and my wife and I went there last year. They actually said that a modern calculator has more processing power than the Apollo series of ships. I really had a hard time believing it, but stumbled across an article one day on the web.
http://www.abc.net.au/science/moon/computer.htm
4Kb RAM!!! 74Kb of total memory!! So yeah, our cell phones are definitely more powerful, our cars ridiculously more so and that 'modern calculator' thing - well, my old graphing calculator from 10 years ago was pretty damn amazing too.
Where will we be in 50 more years?!?
http://www.abc.net.au/science/moon/computer.htm
4Kb RAM!!! 74Kb of total memory!! So yeah, our cell phones are definitely more powerful, our cars ridiculously more so and that 'modern calculator' thing - well, my old graphing calculator from 10 years ago was pretty damn amazing too.
Where will we be in 50 more years?!?