Early Hi-tech

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Posted: Tue May 25, 2010 7:06 pm

It's a 1956 hard disk ... a HDD with 5 MB storage !

In September 1956 IBM launched the 305 RAMAC, the first computer with
a hard disk drive (HDD). The HDD weighed over a ton and stored 5 MB of data.

Start appreciating your 8 GB memory stick.

Posted: Tue May 25, 2010 7:13 pm

That's the hard-drive from Ghost's Alienware machine.

Posted: Tue May 25, 2010 9:25 pm

I remember an IBM System/34 back in 1990 (probably +10 years old at that time) with a 64 MB hard disk the size of a 3-month well-fed baby.

So weight-per-byte progress has increased a lot the last decennia.

1956 - >1000kg/5Mb = 200000 gram/Mb
1980 - 5Kg/64Mb = 78 gram/Mb or 2500 times higher density in 30 years
2010 - 25 g/8Gb = 0.003 gram/Mb or 25000 times higher density in 30 years

Shocked

in another 30 years we can put the whole internet on a memory stick!

Posted: Tue May 25, 2010 11:11 pm

1956 was an awesome year. Mr. Green

Posted: Tue May 25, 2010 11:37 pm

Child of the 80s here.
First time I used a computer, it was one of the computers at my school. A BBC Microcomputer with a green monochrome display monitor.
Ahh, happy memories Very Happy

Was always curious about how those "magic boxes" worked. Now I've learned how to build my own, hehe.

Posted: Tue May 25, 2010 11:53 pm

@roycropper, thank you. I now feel like a dinosaur. Laughing

Seriously, that was interesting, and it's amazing to see how things have changed. Unfortunately I'm shrinking, too. Ha! Laughing

I miss Pong. Wink

Posted: Wed May 26, 2010 1:08 am

Back in the 1970s I signed up for an 'Introduction to Computers' class. The students gathered around a monstrosity the size of a dining table, and the tutor began his address with the words, 'One day every home will have a computer.'

That thing would have never got through the doorway of any home I knew. I thought he was crazy. Couldn't be believed - and so I exited the class and returned home in disgust. Computers in the home? Impossible idea.

Posted: Wed May 26, 2010 2:28 am

Makes you wonder what will be around in another 30 years or so?

Trophy Videos · Posted: Wed May 26, 2010 6:24 am

Human brains, connected with nanowires, in huge clusters, betting quatloos on the life or death struggles of alien species captured and transported to other galaxies. Shocked

Computers as we know them are obsolete.....

Posted: Wed May 26, 2010 7:30 am

Yes, but only after the great schism and resulting war between the humanists ('hearts not hard-drives!') and the cyberprogressives ('implants are power!') takes place.

The frightening thing is, I'm more prepared to believe in Slaphappy's brain-net as a viable possibility in 30 years time than I am the discovery of a sentient alien lifeform. Confused

Posted: Wed May 26, 2010 7:52 am

They recently found out what important scientific information those chaps were transporting on that hard drive thingy.

They could catch on. Wink

Posted: Wed May 26, 2010 8:30 am

this is the first computer I was introduced to,

here is Google back in 1956

Posted: Wed May 26, 2010 9:12 am

http://calderup.wordpress.com/2010/05/04/internet-64/

Posted: Wed May 26, 2010 9:23 am

/\/\ The screen says 'Dear Ludmilla, I will be waiting at the airport for you, I have sent the visa money you asked for, via western Union....'

Posted: Wed May 26, 2010 10:30 am

@Cougar
Actually if the intelligent life out there in the universe is really intelligent, it'll be smart enough not to get in touch with humanity. lol.

(Just got this picture in my head of two aliens orbiting Earth in a spaceship, one is reading a message on a screen)
"Incoming message from Earth... It says someone needs our help to leave the planet with their 50,000,000 Galactic Credits!"

Posted: Fri May 28, 2010 1:54 am

^

Posted: Fri May 28, 2010 2:17 am

My first computer:

Tandy Radio Shack TRS-80 Model II, with 8" floppy drive and a whopping 32K RAM. Man, what power!

It cost $3,450 in 1981 dollars, equivalent to about $8,000 today, not counting the auxiliary disk drive, printer, or software. (Needless to say I didn't buy this personally, it was my business computer.)

Posted: Fri May 28, 2010 10:41 am

^^

Already baiting back then Laughing

Posted: Fri May 28, 2010 12:28 pm

I did an apprenticeship in electrical engineering for Avery weighing machines in the late 70s. They brought out the first commercially available computerised electronic weighing machine in the UK around 1976. It had a 5 1/2 floppy drive and had to boot up before it could be used. Called the Avery 1750, it never really sold that well because it needed separate power supply, floppy drive, printer and scales which took up too much room for most small businesses to deploy. It also cost a small fortune.

I remember they all got very excited because the strain gauge was so sensitive, it could measure the dust that settled on the weighing plate if was left on over night. You come in and found there was a fraction of a gram mysteriously registering on the glowing valve numerical display. The designers thought it was some sort of bug until they figured out what was going on. Its main selling point was, shops could secretly charge for the bag you bought your sweeties or carrots in, because it could weigh that too along with the goods. Confused

Posted: Fri May 28, 2010 2:13 pm

The Manchester Mark 1, or 'Baby', the worlds first stored program computer, from 1949.

The machine contained 4,050 valves and had a power consumption of 25 kilowatts. If you think your SO is unhappy about you spending half the night on the 'net, wait till the electricty bill came for this....

Posted: Sat May 29, 2010 1:20 pm

First computer I ever owned (in the early 1980's) was a Microbee. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MicroBee