Apollo Guidance Computer Module

A Block I Apollo Guidance Computer logic module, built by Raytheon to an MIT Instrumentation Laboratory design. The AGC was the first computer to use silicon integrated circuits as its primary logic element, and its rope-core memory — software literally woven into copper wire by hand — carried the programs that flew Apollo to the Moon. Modules of this generation were engineering hardware: used, probed, modified, and retired long before flight units were sealed. Surviving examples outside institutional collections are exceptionally scarce.