On: The tiny chip that powers Montreal subway tickets

[kens]

I think this chip is implemented with a state machine rather than a processor, so it's meaningless to compare their processing power. The Apollo Guidance Computer had about 17,000 transistors, while I estimate that the NFC chip has about 45,000 transistors. So the NFC chip has more complexity, but the same order of magnitude.

[astrobe_ → kens]

For the fun of it, what about radiation hardening ?

[kens → astrobe_]

The Apollo Guidance Computer would be more radiation-hard, due to its large transistors and magnetic core memory.