Re: [gentoo-user] [OT] How fast was ... ?

[meino.cramer@gmx.de]

Florian Philipp <lists@binarywings.net> [11-10-27 17:10]:
> Am 27.10.2011 06:34, schrieb Pandu Poluan:
> > 
> > On Oct 27, 2011 9:50 AM, <meino.cramer@gmx.de
> > <mailto:meino.cramer@gmx.de>> wrote:
> >>
> >> Michael Mol <mikemol@gmail.com <mailto:mikemol@gmail.com>> [11-10-26
> > 20:40]:
> >> > On Wed, Oct 26, 2011 at 1:56 PM,  <meino.cramer@gmx.de
> > <mailto:meino.cramer@gmx.de>> wrote:
> >> > > Hi,
> >> > >
> >> > > On www.archive.org <http://www.archive.org> I found videos of the
> > series "Computer Chronicle"
> >> > > with Richard Cheifet and Gary Kildall (the inventor of CP/M and the
> >> > > founder of Intergalactical Digital Research, later known as Digital
> >> > > Research or short DR).
> >> > >
> >> > > Totally amazed by the things which were "brandnew" those days
> >> > > (1985/1995) and are outclassed by any digital whristwatch nowadays I
> >> > > became curious about a more exact definition of "faster" in this
> >> > > area...
> >> > >
> >> > > Or in other words:
> >> > >
> >> > > Is it really true, that a mobile smartphone of today is as fast as
> >> > > a big iron of 1975?
> >> >
> >> > My understanding is that big iron's outstanding features were:
> >> > * Uptime
> >> > * Gobs and gobs and gobs of I/O. (Though I don't know the numbers)
> >> >
> >> > If you want to compare feature sets, be sure to include those. :)
> >> >
> >> > --
> >> > :wq
> >> >
> >>
> >> Thank you *VERY* much for those nice links!!! :) Great stuff!
> >>
> >> I know, that benchmarking is anything but science...but on the other
> >> hand: Knowing that a PDP-8 (which was newer than the PDP-7 on which
> >> Dennis Ritchie and Ken Thompson started to develop UNIX) had about
> >> 0.004 MWIPS and a current desktop PC has something like 3500 MWIPS
> >> let shine a total different, more brighter light to terms like
> >> "computer pioneers"...  :)
> >>
> >> Those days a 'bit' was more a real thing than nowadays :)))
> >>
> > 
> > Back in 'those days', cycle-counting is a must for all programmers.
> > Heck, as recent as 8088, programmers still do cycle-counting (especially
> > assembly programmers).
> > 
> > Kids these days have it sooooooo much easier.
> > 
> > Oh, and... get off my lawn! :-D
> > 
> > Rgds,
> > 
> 
> One of my colleagues at the lab still tells stories of the time when he
> set up a radio receiver in the canteen so he could hear the mainframe
> "buzz" on shortwave radio while his program was running. When the sound
> suddenly changed, he knew there was an error.
> 
> Regards,
> Florian Philipp
> 

Hi, 

oh YEAH!

This is true computer magick! Really!
Somehow I miss that day, when little green bit from
outer space were little green bits from outer space,
and real programmers has gone where no man has been
gone before!

I started with an Atari 800. I had a "bible" called
"Mapping the Atari" which had described EVERY used memory
cell with its funtion and what you can do with it.
"Peek" and "Poke" was daily business, and GOTO was
crime at all.
Damn, one knows the function of nearly every chip in
this computer and it was possible even to write 
assembly programs (it was the assembly code of the
graphics chip! NOT the CPU!) of the which get executed \
each vertical blank interrupt!

Somehow sad, that this time has gone.

(Am I getting older?)

Best regards,
mcc