any one know 1980s computer specs.

[raggie33]

i think i just read my amazon fire 2021 tablet has more power then this mainframe! am i mis reading? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cray_Y-MP

 

[badtziscool]

My very first computer had an Intel i386SX processor that ran at 16MHz, had 1 megabyte of RAM, and a 40 megabyte hard drive. That was right at the beginning of the 1990s. I'm pretty sure what you're reading is correct.

 

[raggie33]

that just blows my mind! damn thing is bigger then a small bathroom. and uses more eletricty then my entire home

 

[jtr1962]

The Y-MP had a measured GFLOPS of 2.144 and a peak GFLOPS of 2.667 in both 1988 and 1989.

Nowadays most CPUs get well into the tens of GFLOPS, even the hundreds. Kind of amazing that small, hand-held devices have similar or better computing power than a supercomputer did 30 years ago.

New Android Benchmark: How many flops can your phone REALLY do

There are many ways to benchmark an Android device but the one I have always been most interested in is the Linpack for android benchmark by GreeneComputing. The Linpack benchmarks have been used …

walkingrandomly.com

The benchmarks in the last link are from 2012. Doubtless today's cell phones manage a few gigaflops.

 

[raggie33]

Nowadays most CPUs get well into the tens of GFLOPS, even the hundreds. Kind of amazing that small, hand-held devices have similar or better computing power than a supercomputer did 30 years ago.

New Android Benchmark: How many flops can your phone REALLY do

There are many ways to benchmark an Android device but the one I have always been most interested in is the Linpack for android benchmark by GreeneComputing. The Linpack benchmarks have been used …

walkingrandomly.com

The benchmarks in the last link are from 2012. Doubtless today's cell phones manage a few gigaflops.

and i payed 80 bucks for mine with a 10_inch screen lol

 

[WarriorOfLight]

In the 80's normal computers (home computers) had a 8 bit CPU and maybe 64K RAM. Floppy disks were at 160KB or something like that.

But in the 80s there were also computers available with "high calculation speed" i.e. Cray: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cray_X-MP

Today a normal PC is much faster than this machines, and has more storage capabilities.

 

[Mister Ed]

Most smart phones can do more calculations that what was used to put a man on the moon.
80s? Heh, most tablets today can definitely run circles around them.

 

[WarriorOfLight]

Most smart phones can do more calculations that what was used to put a man on the moon.

You can replace Most with All:

Apollo Guidance Computer - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[raggie33]

ok im building a time machine first im going to sell.my tablet to ibm for 80 percent of shares. then im giving donalnd turmps parents condoms

 

[JimIslander]

that just blows my mind! damn thing is bigger then a small bathroom. and uses more eletricty then my entire home

Think about how much lighter and more powerful your car engine is than early engines.

 

[raggie33]

Think about how much lighter and more powerful your car engine is than early engines.

no.where as a diifence as computers

 

[Olumin]

You people are going to be amazed when in a few decades tiny optical chips will store all current digital data on the planet many times over and electronic silicon chips will be obsolete. And just wait for global wireless energy distribution. Think of it as WiFi, but with electricity. I cant stand cables.

Any of you would have told those 80s people about modern computer systems, they would have never believed you.

 

[Beamhead]

My very first computer had an Intel i386SX processor that ran at 16MHz, had 1 megabyte of RAM, and a 40 megabyte hard drive. That was right at the beginning of the 1990s. I'm pretty sure what you're reading is correct.

Mine was a Tandy RLX 1000 with a 286 @ 16 MHz with 1 meg of RAM sported a 40 Meg HD a 300 BAUD Modem and a 256 color display.
I remember the salesman saying that the HD could hold the Library of Congress lol. Oh and I had a Panasonic Dot Matrix printer I was stylin 💀
Some bits left from an old teaching aid.

 

[badtziscool]

Mine was a Tandy RLX 1000 with a 286 @ 16 MHz with 1 meg of RAM sported a 40 Meg HD a 300 BAUD Modem and a 256 color display.
I remember the salesman saying that the HD could hold the Library of Congress lol. Oh and I had a Panasonic Dot Matrix printer I was stylin 💀
Some bits left from an old teaching aid.


View attachment 15229

For a while, I was collecting CPU chips. I stopped that when I realized some of the really old chips were real collectors items and was commanding top dollar. I need to go find that stash. My favorite was the intel pentium pro. I loved the way it looked with the gold annodized heat sheild and black graphics.

 

[PhotonWrangler]

My first computer was a Commodore 64, followed by an Amiga 1000. This was groundbreaking stuff in it's day. While most people thought of it as a gaming machine, it opened the doors to desktop video production. The first nonlinear digital video editor available to the public was made with an Amiga Video Toaster and Flyer combination. These days a modern PC or MAC leaves the Amiga in the dust.

 

[archimedes]

I wanted a Sinclair ZX80 so badly at the time, but couldn't afford one. 1KB RAM, 4KB ROM. No simultaneous input and output, so the display blanked when one was typing, lol.

 

[Dingo07]

I too had a Commodore 64 as my first computer - I was stoked when I picked up a 14.4 modem for it! I used to phreak to meet people in other countries on BBS's... the days before the Internet lol!
A friend of mine had an Amiga 1200 that had awesome graphics! I would do anything to go over to his house and watch him do stuff on the computer!!

 

[raggie33]

great input everyone

 

[jabe1]

We had a trs-80 II (trash-80) with the 64k ram upgrade. 5 1/4" floppy and a tiny screen.
We got a model 12 when they came out shortly after. My dad used it to crunch data for psychological test data and scoring.
We could log into the university's mainframe and chat with people at the school; using a cradle modem that I think was 9600 baud.

 

[raggie33]

any of you would of thought apple silicon would be better then intel?