A quick glance, seems to show it is built exclusively out of Nor gates, which themselves are made out of three transistors, in a resistor transistor logic configuration (i.e. probably RTL). I think they are then made out of early, simple integrated circuits.
Yep, the entire computer is built from thousands of three input NOR gates. The chips themselves were built by Fairchild and each one had two gates. Yes, they were RTL logic. The Apollo AGC was one of the first to use integrated circuits rather than discrete transistors. The word length was 16 bits, with one bit acting as an overflow bit and one as a sign bit. Numbers were represented in ones complement.
The AGC did use core. Core rope for the read-only program store and planar core for the writable memory.
Not only did the AGC use these ICs, the ground test equipment used the same parts. Approximately 80% of US IC production at the time went to the Apollo programme. They wanted to ensure the parts would stay in production long enough to get to the moon & back
Replying to both of you at the same time.
(from a quick glance at it), I think they did a really good job, of designing that computer (I'm especially surprised at the drawing quality of the schematics. I'm use to hand drawn stuff in that era. Maybe they used stencils/protractors/shapes etc to do it, or some kind of crazily early CAD/EDA software). Except maybe they should have considered 8 bits, which could have drastically reduced the hardware size, in theory. But maybe 16 bits was the right choice.
Also from a quick look at the instruction set (the other day), it seems to be a very early RISC like architecture, although maybe that is a matter of opinion. Certainly it seems to have very few instructions, but they seem to have crammed all the sort of functionality that one would need, into them.
Taking the time when they did this into consideration (pre-1969, obviously), they did quite an amazing job. Even the first microprocessors had not been invented (as regards available on the open market), yet. Although some people (me included) argue that some of the pre-microprocessor cpu chips, were actually almost processors in their own right.
E.g. TTL 74181 4 bit ALU. It is almost a TTL based, 4 bit arithmetic Logic "microprocessor", in its own right. Technically it is not a processor and is missing many of the units in a single chip microprocessor. But on the other hand, it is a sort of 4 bit-sliced (partial) processor.
Ignoring the political/philosophical ramifications. This Apollo AGC, was probably an early version of the TTL based, computers, used for the Nuclear weapon deterrent systems, of that era. Some sources say that the ballistic missile program, effectively paved/paid the way for the development of TTL, and hence the start of the computer revolution.
Early (especially hand built) Germanium transistors, were rumored to be terribly unreliable (by today's standards). So these three (or 6) transistor IC's, should be especially reliable, surviving the huge G forces, and safety/reliability requirements of space.
But I can believe by then, reliable transistor production and/or Silicon transistors, could be mass produced, and were fairly reliable.
Although 1960's electronics had a tendency to be unreliable, anyway. Reliable construction techniques were in their infancy, especially for space environments.
I'm a bit surprised that core memory (with potentially weak/flimsy wires and fragile magnetizable cores and stuff) can take the huge G forces, and harsh environment, strict reliability and safety requirements for a space mission. Also the fact that you have to "write" to it, in order to "read" from it, would worry me, as well. As it makes it sound intrinsically unreliable/delicate.
I guess the "ROM" version, may have used a technique so that it is not writable. I.e. non-destructive reads. I.e. permanent magnets as cores, if that even works technically and/or is practicable to put in the individual 0's and 1 bits in by hand. I vaguely remember reading somewhere or a Youtube program, mentioning something like that. Where women would patiently assemble the cores and it would take months to make each one.
I can imagine in 10 years time, putting on a VR helmet, and then getting into a life like virtual simulation of the Apollo 11 space craft, then flying and landing on the Moon.