Portable computers. We've come a long way.

[JustinMSalvato]

I look at my Microsoft Surface with wonder. It's a tablet, but it's a full-pledged PC. It's very portable, but that wasn't always the case, though the Epson PX-8 was an incredible step forward (in my opinion). Check out this video put out by Video Game Stars about early portable computers.

 

 

[Flojomojo]

I'm even more amazed by the super low end nowadays, cheap laptops with tiny storage and crap screens are still way better than anything from the olden days -- yet they do so much more, including play all the old DOS and Windows games with what used to require expensive add-on cards for good sound and 3D graphics.

 

I like the Surface just fine, but my $200 2014 HP Stream 13" laptop is a plastic blue consumer marvel. My $70 11" version from eBay, even more so.

[CatPix]

The Chinese sell 40$ smartphones. Well they sure are 6 years old tech, and are usually sluggish because they put the latest Android on them for marketing, but when you think about the power they had...

Or even to think that a 5$ raspberry Pi Zero have more calculating power than all of the supercomputer of the NASA to land a man on the moon... for like 0.0000000000001% of the price

Portable or fixed, computing power really made an amazing jump.

[JamesD]

The Chinese sell 40$ smartphones. Well they sure are 6 years old tech, and are usually sluggish because they put the latest Android on them for marketing, but when you think about the power they had...

Or even to think that a 5$ raspberry Pi Zero have more calculating power than all of the supercomputer of the NASA to land a man on the moon... for like 0.0000000000001% of the price

Portable or fixed, computing power really made an amazing jump.

My LG smart phone was $10, no contract.

 

When you start looking at things like your NASA comparison, some 8 bit machines are faster than any computer built up until around 1959.

https://www.frc.ri.cmu.edu/~hpm/book97/ch3/processor.list.txt

[CatPix]

Yeah, I read that the microcontroller used in musical postcards is more powerful than any computer build in the 1950's I dunno if that's true, but heh.

Very interesting list tho, It's a good way to see how things have evolved.

[Keatah]

Apollo guidance computer characteristics
Courtesy Charles Stark Draper Laboratory Archives, Number 5615
-----
Word length 16 Bits
Memory cycle time 11.7 uSec
Erasable memory 2,048 Words
Read-only memory 36,864 Words
Machine instructions 34 Regular
Priority interrupts 11
Add time 23.4 uSec
Multiplication time 46.8 uSec
Input/output 227 Circuits
Integrated circuits 5,600 Gates

Clock ~2MHz
Power 55 Watts
Weight 70 Lb
Volume 0.97 cubic Ft.

 

..and when they swung around the moon, coming out of radio silence, this little computer had already calculated the vectors for trans-lunar ejection. The ground had to take several minutes to compute and verify the answer was correct!

 

You may think of the "i/o" circuits as individual lines in a regular VCS DB9 port for joystick/paddles.

Edited April 19, 2017 by Keatah

[MarkO]

If your willing to "throw a few dollars" Evan Koblentz's way, you can get his book, Abacus to smartphone: The evolution of mobile and portable computers.

 

 

Evan Koblentz is a co-founder and director of the Vintage Computer Federation.

 

 

MarkO

[JamesD]

Okay, I lost this message twice already so here is the abridged version.

A 1MHz 6802 is 0.05 MIPS, so 2MHz B version is 0.1 MIPS, the 6803 is faster, and the 6303 cuts at least 1 clock cycle from every 6803 instruction.
So an MC68B03 or HD63B03 are probably faster than any machine listed up to 1964 and possibly even 1966 in the case of the 6303.
The 6803 was introduced in 1978 and the 6303 in the latter half of the 80s.
Some variations came with 128 or 256 bytes of RAM and 2K of ROM built in a 40 or 64 pin DIP.
That should be enough to hold the code for an Enigma machine and Bombe (Enigma Cracker) if messages are limited to available RAM.

Edited April 21, 2017 by JamesD