The relentless march of micro-electronics.
sduford on Oct 05 2006 at 2:43 pm | Filed under: Hardware, Mobile Devices
A few months ago I purchased an iMate SP5 smartphone. This little wonder is smaller then a candy bar, features a 4 band GSM transceiver with support for Edge and GPRS data networks as well as Bluetooth and WiFi connectivity. It also has a 1.3 Mpix camera and runs Windows Mobile 5, an advanced and complex operating system that can run all kinds of games and applications (including email of course). 
This morning I was thinking about just how much computing power is needed to run such a phone and I remembered that the world’s first super-computer, the Cray 1 (see picture on the right), came out 30 years ago in 1976. I started comparing the two and came to the conclusion that I was holding a supercomputer (in 1970s terms) in my hand. The stuff that science-fiction is made of!
Just for fun, here are some of the specifications:
Cray-1
- Processor: 64 bit 80Mhz, about 130 MIPS (Million Instructions Per Second)
- Memory: maximum of 1M words, or 8 MB
- Interface: Data General SuperNova Computer
- Weight: 5.5 tons, including the freon cooling system
- Power consumption: 115KW, not including the cooling and storage
- Cost: $8M
iMate SP5
- Processor: 32 bit 200Mhz ARM9 RISC processor, 220 MIPS
- Memory: 64MB ROM, 64MB RAM, and 1GB Flash RAM in a small storage card
- Interface: Built-in keyboard and 64,000 colour screen, voice control
- Weight: 106 grams (no cooling required)
- Power consumption: 3 to 5 days on its tiny internal battery
- Cost: $400
Truly outstanding isn’t it? And keep in mind that the Cray 1 was a special order item reserved for governments, the military, and research universities. The iMate SP5 is a consumer item. Today’s specialised advanced electronics are even more impressive.
Remember the Star Trek communicators? Well, we’ve gone well beyond those already!
