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Mars Rover Curiosity: Less Brainpower Than Apple's iPhone 5

Posted by timothy on from the when-I-was-a-boy-we-didn't-have-mars dept.

Nerval's Lobster writes "To give the Mars Rover Curiosity the brains she needs to operate took 5 million lines of code. And while the Mars Science Laboratory team froze the code a year before the roaming laboratory landed on August 5, they kept sending software updates to the spacecraft during its 253-day, 352 million-mile flight. In its belly, Curiosity has two computers, a primary and a backup. Fun fact: Apple's iPhone 5 has more processing power than this one-eyed explorer. 'You're carrying more processing power in your pocket than Curiosity,' Ben Cichy, chief flight software engineer, told an audience at this year's MacWorld."

2 of 256 comments (clear)

  1. Why do they always have to refer to the iPhone? by bogaboga · · Score: 1, Flamebait

    Fun fact: Apple's iPhone 5 has more processing power than this one-eyed explorer.

    Never mind that iPhone's source code is closed. I don't dispute the fact above.

    My trouble though is on the constant reference to Apple's device as if a generic term like "Smart Phone" would not suffice!

    Personally, I am tired of seeing the term "iPhone" day in and day out. I am tired!

    Can anyone refute 'my fact that' any smart phone has more processing power then the the one-eyed explorer?

    1. Re:Why do they always have to refer to the iPhone? by Bomazi · · Score: 0, Flamebait

      Because Steve Jobs invented the computer, duh.