Smartphones vs old computers: Apple II vs iPhone 5s, IBM PC vs Galaxy S5

Computing power has followed Moore's law, more or less.
The comparison to NASA's famous computer on the Apollo mission is misleading, since that computer predates the modern single chip microprocessor.
The user experience i.e. speed has been more or less constant. Each time a faster processor comes out, the OS vendors have a new OS ready to consume all of its resources with progressively increasing amounts of bloatware.
 
You don't know computers unless you've had to choose between either using a mouse or your soundblaster 16bit audio card because there is not enough lower ram and you don't have enough interrupts for both while playing Police Quest.
 
Brieuse said:
You don't know computers unless you've had to choose between either using a mouse or your soundblaster 16bit audio card because there is not enough lower ram and you don't have enough interrupts for both while playing Police Quest.
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Or you used those old menu systems on a IBM xt, played street Rods on a Hercules monochrome , in green and black

Or got windows 3.1 running on a compressed 40meg hard drive, in monochrome as well :)
 
Brieuse said:
You don't know computers unless you've had to choose between either using a mouse or your soundblaster 16bit audio card because there is not enough lower ram and you don't have enough interrupts for both while playing Police Quest.
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You got into computing in the early nineties. Spare a thought for those who had to choose between 128 or 256KB RAM in the 80's with no such thing as a mouse around or 64x16 or 32x32 graphics characters in the 70's. :)
 
jannievanzyl said:
You got into computing in the early nineties. Spare a thought for those who had to choose between 128 or 256KB RAM in the 80's with no such thing as a mouse around or 64x16 or 32x32 graphics characters in the 70's. :)
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Right with you there man.
My Dad gave me my first computer around 1986.
 
jannievanzyl said:
You got into computing in the early nineties. Spare a thought for those who had to choose between 128 or 256KB RAM in the 80's with no such thing as a mouse around or 64x16 or 32x32 graphics characters in the 70's. :)
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got into?


oh yes, I remember waiting a loooong time for that 256k to count up

and that tape cassette on the C64, wonderful marvel of technology
 
Wow you guys had it lucky! Try working on a Sinclair with 1K memory with an optional 16K pak, which was faulty.
 
Let's add the drives : I started with an audio tape drive for storage, saved up for a floppy disk and then again for a 10MB hard drive
 
Started with a 48k ZX Spectrum.

Progressed to a 286 with mono, upgraded to 386 with mono VGA just to run OS/2...

those were the days...

If you load win3.11 in DOSBox, you'll be amazed at how fast it loads - in contrast with the slow load times on the early 286 and 386 PC's.

Played around with Win3.0 back when it came out, on a 286 with 640k RAM, it was usable, but only just.

The monochrome Hercules video adapter was left out here...
 
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You can't really compare , CPUs like that, you should look at how many iInstructions per second a CPU can execute (MIPS) instead of directly comparing MHz and even then there are other variables to consider like larger instruction sets like MMX that boost graphics performance refusing the needed IPS count, it is highly misleading.

As for old computers, just recently got a Apple Se/30 I am currently restoring, just finished replacing all the caps and am now hunting for a suitable SCSI 1 hard drive and a keyboard and mouse for the computer....
 
Comparing current computers to those used for the moon landing is misleading since there was a heavy reliance back then on analogue computers. These were obviously faster than current computers.

The main advances since then is that computers have become general purpose and a lot cheaper, even if they are slower.
 
I don't think it's just bloat (although there is quite a bit). We simply do a lot more, and expect a lot more. On my 166Mhz pentium, I could barely listen to mp3's and compile at the same time. On my older IBM XT it was one REAL task at a time. There were methods to do more, but the CPU and RAM simply couldn't keep up.

Now I'm driving two 1920x1080 monitors, listening to music, building and running a VM at the same time without flinching.
 
And to give you a taste (and reminder) of what 3-color CGA looked like :

Eagle's Nest (CGA)

eaglecga.jpg


Eagle's Nest (EGA)

eagleega.jpg


War in Middle Earth (CGA)

wimecga.jpg


War in Middle Earth (EGA)

wimeega.jpg
 
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Aaaah nostalgia for me.

Apple II at school
IBM PC at my dad's business
48k ZX Spectrum,commodore 64 and finally my best one, Amiga 500 at home.
 
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