Think back about 35 years...

[Ghery]

Got started thinking about this during an IM session at work...

We all get excited about Moore's Law as it relates to shrinking feature sizes on chips, etc. But, have you stopped to think about what the cost of our toys has done over the years?

The HP-35 pocket calculator came out in 1973 (fall of 72?). The initial price was $395. Now, $395 for a pocket calculator would seem high today, but stop and think about what that represented then. When I graduated from college in 1975, the typical starting salary for a EE graduate was about $1000 per month. Gross. Before taxes. Probably something less in 1973. That HP-35 represented 40% of a new EE's salary for a month in 1975. And people bought them. Would you pay 40% of your monthly salary for a pocket calculator today? Would you even pay that much for a laptop computer?

When it comes to computing devices, these are the good old days.

Have a nice weekend.

 

[ScottM]

Got started thinking about this during an IM session at work...

We all get excited about Moore's Law as it relates to shrinking feature sizes on chips, etc. But, have you stopped to think about what the cost of our toys has done over the years?

The HP-35 pocket calculator came out in 1973 (fall of 72?). The initial price was $395. Now, $395 for a pocket calculator would seem high today, but stop and think about what that represented then. When I graduated from college in 1975, the typical starting salary for a EE graduate was about $1000 per month. Gross. Before taxes. Probably something less in 1973. That HP-35 represented 40% of a new EE's salary for a month in 1975. And people bought them. Would you pay 40% of your monthly salary for a pocket calculator today? Would you even pay that much for a laptop computer?

When it comes to computing devices, these are the good old days.

Have a nice weekend.

This is the stuff that keeps me up at night!

In the technology industry we, the US, were the leaders. Now, as you have shown, the products are comoditized. You know as well as I that most of this stuff is overseas where in the 1970s it was companies such as the ones you and I work at that were leading the way. Now we are even seeing the last vestiges of the US part of this stuff leaving our shores.

But what bugs me is I really do not see what is in the wings technology wise for the US to take the next lead into. Whatever that next wave is I think we are behind the crest. For someone like me who is responsible for determine technology directions that is scary!

BTW famous dumb predictions are always fun.

Back in the 1970's my companies CTO was talking about our new entry into the microprocessor business and said that it would never amount to much and he never would expect to see a uP in any of the radios we were building.

Well he was sort of right, most of the radios we build have two or three uPs in them and we went on to have the most successful and in the most products, uP to when we sold the biz a few years back.

 

[Ghery]

BTW famous dumb predictions are always fun.

Back in the 1970's my companies CTO was talking about our new entry into the microprocessor business and said that it would never amount to much and he never would expect to see a uP in any of the radios we were building.

Well he was sort of right, most of the radios we build have two or three uPs in them and we went on to have the most successful and in the most products, uP to when we sold the biz a few years back.

I remember the 68000 series of uPs. Good processors. I think my wife's old Apple LCIII is based on one. And the HP 9836s that I ran the EMC labs at Tandem on were based on the 68000 series, as well.

Predicting the future is not something I do well. If I did I wouldn't have to work for a living.

 

[ScottM]

I remember the 68000 series of uPs. Good processors. I think my wife's old Apple LCIII is based on one. And the HP 9836s that I ran the EMC labs at Tandem on were based on the 68000 series, as well.

Predicting the future is not something I do well. If I did I wouldn't have to work for a living.

The 68000 uPs were in just about everything. I know they were in the MACs I am not sure about the other Apples. But they also dominated the auto industry, home appliance, government, etc.

 

[mikea]

I remember the 68000 series of uPs. Good processors. I think my wife's old Apple LCIII is based on one. And the HP 9836s that I ran the EMC labs at Tandem on were based on the 68000 series, as well.

Predicting the future is not something I do well. If I did I wouldn't have to work for a living.

The 68000 uPs were in just about everything. I know they were in the MACs I am not sure about the other Apples. But they also dominated the auto industry, home appliance, government, etc.

I owned an Auspex network storage system (Great company, great product! That gets you nowhere ) that had a Motorola 68000 CPU on the host processor. When they switched to Sun SPARC CPUs Motorola wouldn't buy them. Auspex had to send them the old 68000 versions.

 

[alaskaflyer]

Everything you need to know about tomorrow is in the fiction of yesterday.

 

[kgruber]

Got started thinking about this during an IM session at work...

Would you pay 40% of your monthly salary for a pocket calculator today?

YES! If the alternative was to pull my "Versalog" out of the bottom drawer.

 

[Ghery]

YES! If the alternative was to pull my "Versalog" out of the bottom drawer.

Hey, I've still got my Pickett N4-ES double log slide rule. Sitting in my lap as I type this.

And, your E6-B is just another circular slide rule. And I use mine. Much better than trying push buttons in a plane that is bouncing around.

 

[fgcason]

The 68000 uPs were in just about everything. I know they were in the MACs I am not sure about the other Apples.

The Apple II series was 6502 and 65C02 for the IIE. Pretty powerful stuff wth lots of room especially if you add the extended 80 column card and bring memory up to 128Kb.

Back in college I remember a crazy late night discussion about the future of computers. I'd like to find that list in my old college stuff that we wrote everything down for 15 or 20 years later. 16 or maybe even 32Mb of RAM, xx Gb of drive space, blinding fast processor clock speeds, 3.5" 5mb FDD as memory for 640x480 64 bit CCD cameras, etc, etc, etc.

Right now I'm looking over at my Apple IIe disk box. 5.25" floppies that hold 140Kb per side. I mean flip the disk over and punch out the write tab position and the disk can hold a whopping 280K. I mean I have several Mb total disk space. Who could ever need more? The Apple has 128Kb or RAM which is a gaping hole to put programs into.
My digital camera has postage stamp memory that is 1000 times more capacity.

At the time we put that list together, the stuff we dreamed up was off scale silly unreasonable. I mean it's like saying we'll have expecting 5,000 terrabyte SD cards with built in computers in the next decade.

I'm guessing we under estimated just a smidgen.

 

[flyingcheesehead]

The 68000 uPs were in just about everything. I know they were in the MACs I am not sure about the other Apples.

Various 68000-series µP's were in Macs from 1984 to the mid-90's. The first "Power Macs" (with PowerPC µP's) came out in 1994 but the consumer-level and laptops took a bit longer to catch up.

The original Macintosh shipped with an 8MHz 68000. The Mac II was the first with a 68020 and the IIx the first with a 68030. The Quadra series used 68040's.

I used to know all the specs by heart back then...