Oleg Zabluda's blog
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
 
Etak Navigator, which cost $1,500 in 1985, does not use satellites, instead, it uses "dead reckoning", with a...
Etak Navigator, which cost $1,500 in 1985, does not use satellites, instead, it uses "dead reckoning", with a compass affixed in the rear of the car, magnetic beads inside the rim of the wheels for speed, a central-processing unit about the size of a large loaf of bread [1], a series of cassette tapes that contain the digitized maps, and a choice of two green vector monitors, one large and one small.

For the LA, for example, 4 tapes were required. When an edge of the map was reached, the driver needed to change cassette tapes.

[1] Intel 8088-based system with 256K RAM, 32K EPROM, 2K SRAM
http://www.mercurynews.com/peninsula/ci_20725370/mit-professor-gives-prehistoric-car-navigation-system-road
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etak_(automotive_navigation_systems)#Etak_Navigator
http://www.mercurynews.com/peninsula/ci_20725370/mit-professor-gives-prehistoric-car-navigation-system-road

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