Rockwell, Inc., 30 January 1965. D-37C Computer Instructions D-17B Comparison Both the D-17B and the D-37C computers were designed and built by Autonetics, then a division of North American Aviation, later a division of Boeing, for the real time guidance and control of a Minuteman ICBM from launch to detonation. The D-17B is a component of the NS-10Q missile guidance system for the Minuteman I, while the D-37C is a component of the NS-17 missile guidance system for the Minuteman II. There are many basic similarities between the two designs. They are both synchronous, serial machines with fixed head disks for primary memory. They have two-address instructions, half and whole word precision, and many similar instruction operator codes. The differences in the two computers are based mainly upon their differing technologies. The D-17B was built in 1962 using primarily diode-resistor logic and diode-transistor logic as needed to realize its logic circuits. On the other hand, the D-37C was built in 1964 using small scale integrated circuits made by Texas Instruments with discrete components only in the internal power supplies. Specifications MINUTEMAN ADVANCED D-37B MANUFACTURER Autonetics Division of North American Aviation APPLICATIONS Missile guidance and control PROGRAMMING AND NUMERICAL SYSTEM Internal number system: Binary Binary digits/word: 27 Arithmetic system: Fixed point ARITHMETIC UNIT Excl. Stor. Access Microsec Add 78 Mult 1,016 Div 2,030 Arithmetic mode: Serial Timing: Synchronous Operation: Sequential STORAGE No. of Access Medium Words Microsec Disk 6,912 5,000 (Avg) (General Purpose Channels) Disk 29 (Rapid Access Loops) 40 (1 word loop) 160 (4 word loop) 320 (8 word loop) 640 (16 word loop) POWER, SPACE, WEIGHT, AND SITE PREPARATION Power, computer 0.169 kW Volume, computer 0.40 cu ft Weight, computer 26 lbs Power supply Jerrold Foutz, President, SMPS Technology was the responsible engineer for the Minuteman D-37B guidance and control computer power supply study program which defined the state-of-art techniques later used in one of the first integrated-circuit military computers. These techniques included high-speed flat-pack power transistors and diodes (the first silicon power devices that could switch at 20 kHz and higher), high frequency DC-DC converters (100 kHz reduced to 20 kHz for reliability safety margins), high frequency pulse-width-modulated power supplies (20 kHz), metal substrate multilayer circuit boards (removing eight watts per cubic inch in space environment with 40°C rise, junction to system heat sink), and radiation circumvention techniques that removed all electrical power from the power distribution system,