Back in 1987 I started my first job at the Australian DoD. Our group's remit was explosives testing and instrumentation. One of my jobs was to program a hardwar

Back in 1987 I started my first job at the Australian DoD. Our group's remit was explosives testing and instrumentation. One of my jobs was to program a hardware controller/sequencer[0] that would trigger numerous equipment: detonators, accelerometer recorders and high-speed analogue cameras. At our facility, we had two bunkers (for in-situ explosives testing), that had a very small window (maybe 15x15cm that was about a foot deep), behind which sat a very big, very expensive, and very fast high-speed camera. That thing could do 10^6 FPS for very short bursts. It had a relatively long lead time to spin up to speed (hence the need for sequencers to precisely kick of the camera and then detonate the subject device at the right moment). I vaguely remember being told that it cost several million dollars (pretty expensive back in 1987). The team that were in charge of that thing also had a couple of Silicon Graphics IRIS workstations, while I was stuck button punching codes on a vertical, rack-mounted keyboard for the sequencer. That camera and the graphics workstations felt like we were living in the future. I've tried to find out more about the camera but honestly all I can recall is how fast it was, how expensive it was, and that the whole rig took about a square meter or two of floor space. But to eventually be able to see an explosion evolving frame by frame was pretty cool. I fully expect given the pace of change, that by the time 40 years has passed, what was once DoD specced "secret" tech, will be consumer level tech - shrunk from m^3 to several mm^3, and cost down by a factor of 10^5. Amazing. [0] Zilog Z8 BASIC model controller.