History of Computer Hardware

https://archive.org/details/MacWorld_9309_September_1993

after reading Macworld's review of Apple's first PDA, be sure to read Guy Kawasaki's dissenting view near the back of the magazine (page 366 in the archive.org reader):

Late one evening, UCLA graduate student Charley Kline sat in front of a refrigerator-sized computer and sent the message "lo" to a rack of computers operated by systems engineer Bill Duvall at the Stanford Research Institute (SRI), hundreds of miles away.

The computer, which weighs 2.5 metric tons (2.8 short tons), was built and used at the Atomic Energy Research Establishment in Harwell, Berkshire. Construction started in 1949, and the machine became operational in April 1951. It was handed over to the computing group in May 1952 and remained in use until 1957.

It used 828 dekatrons for volatile memory, similar to RAM in a modern computer, and paper tape for input and program storage. A total of 480 relays were used for sequence control and 199 valves (electronic vacuum tube) for calculations. The computer stands 2 meters high, 6 meters wide, and 1 meter deep with a power consumption of 1.5 kW. Output was to either a Creed teleprinter or to a paper tape punch. The machine was decimal and initially had twenty eight-digit dekatron registers for internal storage, which was increased to 40 which appeared to be enough for nearly all calculations. It was assembled from components more commonly found in a British telephone exchange.

This talk is a polemic that distills the pessimistic side of my feelings about systems research these days. I won’t talk much about the optimistic side, since lots of others can do that for me; everyone’s excited about the computer industry. I may therefore present a picture somewhat darker than reality. However, I think the situation is genuinely bad and requires action.

• See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rob_Pike for context