Toyota is running a radio ad that says "a new Toyota has more computer chips than the first rocket to the Moon".

Well of course! '60s computers were hard wired individual components on circuit boards! No "chips' involved.

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What if the ad was modified to read something like "a Toyota today has more circuitry than the first spaceship to the moon." Would it still be true, or false?

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How about this: "The new Priuxry has more computer chips than the human brain!"

Oh, they had chips, just not nearly as complex as what are commonly used today. From

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_Guidance_Computer

The Apollo flight computer was the first to use integrated circuits (ICs). The Block I version used 4,100 ICs, each containing a single 3-input NOR logic gate.

So, are they saying there are more than 4,100 chips in a Toyota? And, by the way, there were other chips on a Saturn V, not just in the AGC. That's not exactly something to be proud of: More chips means more wiring. There are reasons why modern designs go for high integration.

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The Leif Ericson Cruiser

The first rocket to the moon contained only good Soviet vacuum tubes.

OT--it's got to be scary, riding in a craft with vacuum tubes. I recall how often parents' old TV set had to have a tube replaced.... but some old Soviet fighter jets used vacuum tubes too! That's as bad as the Air Force considering using WinNT for their navigation computer some years ago....

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I remember at the time excitable people in the U.S. declared that Soviet fighters used vacuum tubes to protect them against EMP giving the Soviets the technical edge. I guess they wanted the U.S. to close the vacuum tube gap. And all I can say is plus c'est la meme chose.

My question is, is this a Toyota ad? Is that suppose to be a selling point? Buy our car, it's more copmlex than a rocket!!! ...not really what I want to hear, but maybe that's just me.

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Maybe what they meant to say is that the car has more computing power (more MIPS) than the Apollo had. And an ad writer bungled it.

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My mobile phone has more computing power than Apollo did. It's like claiming your boyfriend wears more deoderant than Atilla the Hun.

Dude, my school regulation calculator has more computing power than Apollo did.
No offense to Apollo, that's the best they had.

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Yes!

Actually, It's a selling point for taking your car to the dealer for service!
"Our cars are so complex, only our factory trained mechanics should be allowed to work on them."

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Probably. Of course, real truth in advertising would amend that to "The new _____ car/truck has more computing power than the average person driving one."

This is based on observation while travelling Houston's roads and highways.

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If you are basing it of Houston drivers, that's really faint praise. Kinda like saying it has more computing power than a not-so-bright rock.

Now, you really wanted to say something, how about "more aggressive than a Dallas driver" THAT would get my attention.

(I do not miss my commute in either cities)

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Wow....talk about completely missunderstanding consumer interests. Well, at least THIS consumer's interests.

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I've always loved that kind of cherry-picking and irrelevant detail.

"The new Toiletta Cambrian has more back seat room than a Chevrolet Corvette. In vertical accceleration tests it went from 0 to 60 miles per hour in 2.75 seconds."

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Yup, and for $100 they'll be happy to tell you why the om[e]niscient "Check Engine" light just came ON, and happier still to cause it to go OFF! Not completely misleading, but certainly has the potential:
"A breath of fresh air from the country."
---Yeo Valley brand of organic dairy products.

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You're typical cellphone has a more powerful computer than the ones used in the first rocket to the moon...yawn

Ok, I see these statements a lot....
"my watch has more computing power than..."

I'm actually wondering how true this really is.

A modern Home PC has a lot of computing power compared to the old days true?
A lot of it is used in bells and whistles. Unlike the old days where we had a DOS or UNIX looking screen, we now have pretty folders and windows.
That's a lot of used computing power right there.

What was used in Apollo was pretty Bare Bones. No frills or fancies. True.
The era had less computing power than todays condensed computers. True.

Yet what, exactly, was the computing power used?
Only what was necessary right?

Even I can write a program and order a TicKit online to put it in a Rocket. Granted the components have shrunk but it's basically the same thing as what Apollo used.

Frankly, I think the comparison is faulty. It's also misleading. It makes it look like Apollo didn't have the right tool for the job. As if our technology at the time had sold them short.
Am I wrong in thinking that they had more computing power available but it simply was not necessary?