Light years ahead in an architectural direction that nobody else followed. So not so much "Light Years Ahead" as "light years sideways". And even then, not really so much light years ahead of the Intel 4004, which made it to market a mere two years later. (The Intel 4004 would have made it to market a year earlier had the Apollo Guidance Computer not consumed 100% of very limited American VLSI production capacity for a year, directly ahead of the Intel 4004).
Certainly a fabulous piece of engineering. The problem being that the Intel 4004 was considerably more fabulous. One can very reasonably ask whether the Apollo Guidance Computer advanced or delayed the delivery of microcomputers.
Light years ahead in an architectural direction that nobody else followed. So not so much "Light Years Ahead" as "light years sideways". And even then, not really so much light years ahead of the Intel 4004, which made it to market a mere two years later. (The Intel 4004 would have made it to market a year earlier had the Apollo Guidance Computer not consumed 100% of very limited American VLSI production capacity for a year, directly ahead of the Intel 4004).
Certainly a fabulous piece of engineering. The problem being that the Intel 4004 was considerably more fabulous. One can very reasonably ask whether the Apollo Guidance Computer advanced or delayed the delivery of microcomputers.