5 ms·
When I first read "It combines microelectronic technology, which makes possible operating speeds measured in billionths of a second", I was thinking "Wow, Gigah
by martyvis 5y ago
When I first read "It combines microelectronic technology, which makes possible operating speeds measured in billionths of a second", I was thinking "Wow, Gigahertz clock speeds back then". But later on you realise they are talking about 200 of them billionths, so only 5MHz clock rates.
- twoodfin 5y ago"Only"—in 1964! It was another 17 years before the IBM PC was released with a 4.77MHz 8088. Imagine a gap like that today: The collapse of the lag between "fastest CPU available at any price" and "the CPU in your phone" is basically the story of the computing industry to date.
- xkriva11 5y agoThat sands for microprocessors. Minicomputers had usually bigger rates. Xerox Alto was, for example, 5.88 MHz in 1973.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- AnimalMuppet 5y agoMy dad worked for Univac. I remember that he had an instruction card for the 418 (Univac's lower-end system; the high end at the time was the 1108). I remember that addition took 4 microseconds, and multiplication took 6. This was arount 1970, maybe a bit after. So don't sneer at 5MHz in 1964. It's really fast for the day.