历史与人物forrestheller.com
阿波罗 11 号与 USB-C 充电器之比（2020）
Apollo 11 vs. USB-C Chargers (2020)
2020 — 2023，它一次次回到首页
黑点是上首页（≥ 50 分）的那次投稿，空心点是没冲上去的投稿，点越大分数越高。
导读
作者 Forrest Heller 将阿波罗 11 号制导计算机与几款现代 USB-C 充电器（如 Apple、Anker、Google 的快充头）的计算能力做了逐项对比：主频、内存、存储、I/O 等。结论是这些小小的充电器在多数硬件指标上已全面超越当年把人类送上月球的计算机。
为什么经久不衰：它用严谨又有趣的方式量化了半个多世纪的算力进步，每次重发都能引发关于硬件演进与工程权衡的讨论。
HN 评论精选
吐槽现实中嵌入式设备性能之差，反衬充电器算力其实绰绰有余
我还想看一篇分析加油站加油机前端那块嵌入式垃圾电脑的文章——每按一个键要延迟约 800ms，每次屏幕重绘要 2 秒。不管设备看起来是 20 年前的还是全新的，几乎全都这么慢，害我每次加油多花 60 秒。我猜它们跑的是 Java。
xp84查看英文原文
I'd like to also see an article examining these computing power attributes on the piece of garbage embedded computer on the front of the gas pumps where the lag between registering every keypress is like 800ms, and every screen redraw takes about 2000ms. It takes me an extra 60 seconds to get gas now thanks to how slow these things are, and it is nearly universal despite whether they appear to be 20 year old or new devices. > Car Wash Y/N? (wait) > Loyalty (wait) > Fuel Rewards (wait) > Alt ID (wait) > 0005550000 (wait for the numbers to appear on screen. I bet they run Java.
对比之下更敬佩阿波罗工程中无处不在的手工工艺与人的协作
另外，USB-C 充电器的固件可不是像核心绳存储器那样手工一针一线织进插头里的——阿波罗那样做是为了可靠性。那枚火箭凝聚了各行各业人们的精湛工艺，短短几十年间我们把这么多生产环节外包给了软件和机器，但想到登月是无数人各自贡献一小部分、共同谱成的复杂交响曲，仍觉得美得动人。
markshiz查看英文原文
Yes, and the firmware for the USB-C wasn't sewn by hand into the plug (core rope memory). They did this for reliability purposes. It's amazing the craftsmanship that went into much of that rocket by people of all walks of life. http://www.righto.com/2019/07/software-woven-into-wire-core-rope-and.html Here's another great article on the hand-welds on the F1. In only a short amount of time we've outsourced so much of these production tasks to other software/machines. But it's really amazing to contemplate and appreciate what a work of human hands Apollo was. https://www.wired.co.uk/article/f-1-moon-rocket It's hard for me to grasp it, but I can't help but think it beautiful when I meditate on all the _people_ involved in the moon landing, each person playing a small part in a very complex symphony.
由此引申：现代软件远未达到硬件潜力，编译优化仍有巨大空间
太棒了！媒体总爱说你的手表比某某年代的机器更强，而这篇是真正有趣的技术拆解。我觉得该聊聊我们离最优还有多远——比如用 fasm 写的 MenuetOS。编译器有一天能把程序压缩到那种体积和效率吗？这会不会是 AI 有朝一日能解决的问题？
crmrc114查看英文原文
This is awesome! The media loves to say your pocketwatch is more powerful than X form $date. This is a fun technical rundown. I think at some point we have to start talking about how far from optimized we are https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MenuetOS comes to mind when talking about what can be done in fasm. Are we ever going to get compilers to the point where we can squash things down to that size and efficiency? Is this yet another thing that AI can promise to solve someday?
借 Google 充电器规格偏低吐槽其一贯精打细算的风格
我注意到 Google 充电器的规格比其他家低得多，这符合我对他们的印象。我们公司曾为能争取到 Google 这个客户而兴奋，以为他们数据量大、肯花钱。结果他们把数据优化、过滤到只发给我们不到其他客户 1% 的量——而我们是按数据量收费的。
perl4ever查看英文原文
I note that the Google charger has much lower specs than the others. This is what I would expect from them. I worked for a company that was excited about getting them as a customer for our data processing services. We thought (at least I assume management had high hopes) "wow, Google, they must have tons of data and they will pay us tons of money to deal with it". Nope, they optimized and filtered it to the point where they weren't sending us even 1% of what other customers were. Since they were being charged based on volume.
历次讨论
同类还值得读
开发者无薪坚持完成 Mac 图形计算器：一个秘密项目的故事
Dev stays without pay to finish Mac Graphing Calculator as skunkworks project
苹果 Mac 图形计算器（Graphing Calculator）开发者的亲述：在项目被砍后，几位工程师在没有报酬、没有正式授权的情况下，以“地下项目”方式偷偷留在公司把软件做完…
历史与人物上首页 6 次 · 2009–2022pacifict.com理查德·费曼与 Connection Machine
Richard Feynman and the Connection Machine
长文回忆费曼晚年参与 Connection Machine 并行计算机项目的经历：他分析路由器、用自创的并行 Basic 编写 QCD 程序，也涉足细胞自动机等主题。
历史与人物上首页 5 次 · 2010–2021longnow.org编辑精选负 2000 行代码
-2000 Lines of Code
folklore.org 上 Andy Hertzfeld 记录的一则苹果 Macintosh 开发轶事：Bill Atkinson 被问到写了多少行代码时，回答“-2000 行…
历史与人物上首页 4 次 · 2014–2022folklore.org编辑精选Dennis Ritchie 的第一版 C 编译器（约 1972 年）
Dennis Ritchie’s first C compiler (c. 1972)
这个 GitHub 仓库保存了 Dennis Ritchie 约 1972 年编写的最早 C 编译器源码，是 C 语言和 Unix 早期历史的一手材料。
历史与人物上首页 4 次 · 2013–2025github.com一位破解赛马密码的赌徒
A Gambler Who Cracked the Horse-Racing Code (2018)
彭博社 2018 年的长篇特写，讲述数学家 Bill Benter 如何用统计模型和算法在赛马博彩中持续盈利、累计赢得近十亿美元的故事。
历史与人物上首页 4 次 · 2018–2024bloomberg.com