NASA's brand new Mars rover is powered by Apple's iMac chip from 1998

NASA's brand new Mars rover has touched down on Mars, and now we are finding out it's powered by an Apple chip from 1998.

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A new article has revealed quite an interesting fact about NASA's brand new Mars rover that recently touched down on the Red Planet.

NASA's brand new Mars rover is powered by Apple's iMac chip from 1998 01

In a new article published in NewScientist, we get a deeper understanding of all of the new interesting instruments and components found on the new Perseverance rover. One of the most astonishing facts about Perseverance is that it's using the same kind of chip that Apple used to power the first iMac, but the chips aren't necessarily identical.

Perseverance is equipped with the RAD750, which is a chip that is based on the PowerPC 750 processor from 1998 that is found in Apple's first iMac. The difference between the PowerPC 750 processor and the RAD750 is that the RAD750 is a radiation-hardened processor designed to withstand high-radiation environments such as onboard satellites spacecrafts. RAD750 is designed to withstand up to 1,000,000 Rads, and costs over $200,000. Sometimes it's not all about speed but longevity.

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Jak joined the TweakTown team in 2017 and has since reviewed 100s of new tech products and kept us informed daily on the latest science, space, and artificial intelligence news. Jak's love for science, space, and technology, and, more specifically, PC gaming, began at 10 years old. It was the day his dad showed him how to play Age of Empires on an old Compaq PC. Ever since that day, Jak fell in love with games and the progression of the technology industry in all its forms. Instead of typical FPS, Jak holds a very special spot in his heart for RTS games.

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