NASA Perseverance rover uses the same processor that powers the 1998 iMac

If you’re not yet up to date with the adorable rover currently galavanting on Mars, NASA’s Perseverance rover safely landed on the red planet on 18 February 2021. It is also the most advanced machine that’s ever landed on Mars, but did you know that its processor is the same one which powered the original “Bondi blue” iMac from 1998?

Perseverance is running on a PowerPC 750—a single-core, 233MHz processor with just 6 million transistors. In comparison, Apple’s recently announced M1 chipset has 16 billion transistors and a maximum clock speed of 3.2GHz.

However, the reason as to why NASA picked a processor from the 90s is because Mars’ atmosphere offers far less protection from harmful radiation and charged particles than Earth’s atmosphere. A bad burst of radiation can badly wreck a modern processor. Apparently, using an older and less complex chip can reduce the chances of things going wrong.

Because of those conditions, Perseverance actually features two computing modules—including a backup in case something goes wrong. A third copy of the module is also on board for image analysis.

Additionally, the processor is not exactly a true replica of the one in the old iMacs. It had a RAD750 chip—a special variant that’s hardened against radiation and used on satellites and spacecrafts before, including the Fermi Space Telescope, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, and the Deep Impact comet-hunting spacecraft.

According to NASA, Perseverance is also more powerful than earlier rovers like Spirit or Opportunity. Perseverance has 256MB of RAM, and 2GB of flash memory.

Perseverance—or Percy, according to a few fans—aims to explore Mars’ Jezero crater, where it could possibly show signs of past microbial life. It has recently sent 79 individual images creating its first high-resolution panorama imaging sequence in Mars.

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