Quote:
Originally Posted by KC911
When I entered college ('78), I had never seen a computer, and the student computer room was full of card punches ... and one "interactive terminal" in the corner that three upper class geeks used. Behind the window (to hand in punch cards) were a Burroughs 6800, Vax, and PDP-11s ... but we had a link to an IBM 370 at Research Triangle Park. By '80, the Comp. Science dept went from less than 100, to 1000 and the cards had virtually disappeared. Gimme access to the machines .... that's all I needed  . |
Great demonstration of how far technology has come.
IBM and VAX (the ugly red headed step child of the computing world) machines of that era only had 1 card reader, 1 Console, multiple tape drives, 1 or more printers.
For reference....
That cell phone that is so seductively in the back pocket of the cute girl in front of you in line, has at minimum 3,000,000,000 (yep with a B) transistors in it. I have read, but never counted, that 8,000,000,000 transistors is a more likely number.
If you built a cell phone out of discreet components, it would be larger than the Empire State building.