Delete comment from: Ken Shirriff's blog
Ooh, a real 1970s/80s nuclear missile guidance package. Of course, this is the computer, not the gyroscope, but I wonder if the power supply has a constant frequency or phase-locked loop?
The reason I'm asking is that I immediately thought of of Hal Hardenberg's story "The Missile that Couldn't Fly Straight." It tells the hilarious story of why the difference between a phase-locked loop and a constant frequency in the guidance package can send a ocean-bound test missile "heading straight for Kansas City."
It's in issue #23 of his "DTACK Grounded" 68000 programming newsletter from 1983. (http://www.easy68k.com/paulrsm/dg/dg23.htm, scroll to "Page 17, Column 1") It claims to be fiction, but since Hardenberg had long experience in electronics and Southern California defense companies, I wonder.
Mar 21, 2020, 5:42:21 PM
Posted to Inside a Titan missile guidance computer