Apollo Core Rope Memory Mug

Design

The Apollo Guidance Computer did not load its software from a disk. The software was woven into it. Core rope memory stored each program as copper wire threaded through small ferrite rings: when a sense wire passed through a core it read as a 1, and when it went around the core it read as a 0. The work was done by hand at Raytheon in Waltham, Massachusetts, mostly by women from the local textile and watch-making industries, who followed punched-tape instructions to thread each wire to the correct core. The engineers called it "LOL memory", for the "little old ladies" who wove it.

Because the code was physically woven, it could not be changed after manufacture. Programs such as COLOSSUS for the Command Module and LUMINARY for the Lunar Module had to be finished months before launch. In return, the memory was almost impossible to corrupt, and it held 36,864 words of fixed memory in six compact modules.

This mug wraps six cores and four sense lines all the way round. Read each core from top to bottom and convert the bits to octal, and you get 1202 and 1201: the two program alarms the AGC raised during the Apollo 11 landing.

Item

A glossy black ceramic mug in 11oz or 15oz, with the design printed in white.

Care instructions

- Hand wash recommended to keep the print crisp