Computer nerd stuff.... microchips.

[Blansky]

The world's greatest supercomputer in 1976 was the CRAY-1. It was substantially bigger than a phone booth, weighed 5.5 tons, drew a massive 115 kW of power, and cost $7.9 million, which was certainly not cheap in 1976.

The iPhone 15 Pro of 2023 gets lost in handbags and between sofa cushions, and sips so little power that it runs off an all-day built-in battery. It has wireless connectivity, a sound system and a monster-resolution touch screen built in.

The iPhone 15 Pro starts at $999, has roughly a thousand times more onboard RAM than the CRAY-1, and can perform about 13,420 times more floating point operations per second.

Apple's A17 Pro system-on-a-chip from 2023's is smaller than a postage stamp, the Phone 15 runs somewhere around 19 billion transistors – a number that's doubling about every 2.5 years.

We hold more computing power in our hands than the computer that got the Apollo 11 astronauts to the moon.

A great video of how a microchip is made:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dX9CGRZwD-w&t=108s

[Swearengen]

Even in the last couple of decades there have been huge advances in the price/performance ratio. Compare a Raspberry Pi with a Sun Sparcstation:

"Sun SparcStation 20 vs Raspberry Pi
Sun 27 December 2015 technology Gaige B. Paulsen

For those of us old timers, here's an amusing shootout between a SparcStation 20 and a Raspberry Pi, including both the Pi and the Pi2 (but unfortunately not the Pi0).

For those unfamiliar with the SS20, it was a workhorse desktop in the 1990's. Early pizza-box design and pricing out at well over $10,000 at the time (according to the article, closer to $25K today). It was an awesome desktop workstation, and was seen in some equipment racks as a "cheap" alternative server platform. For comparison, the Pi sells for $20, and the Pi2 for $35.

The short version is that a computer which costs roughly 1/1000 of the price performs about 7x as fast for operations (and for the record, there is no category where the SparcStation wins). For those keeping score, that's a 7000x increase in price/performance in 20 years."

[enjoythemusic]

Well, back in 1972....

Yeah, the Cray was a big deal back in the day.

So was the 8" floppy.

[Blansky]

After watching the video I quickly realized that none of this complicated process will every work.

It's a just a nerd's wet dream.

[VictorGMT]

It's not going to stop.

Allowing us to create amazingly complex and intricate Simulations. And requiring us to believe we are the first to do so...

[Krash]

Great thread.

And products from Nvidia are raising the performance bar even higher and fueling the AI boom.

Next on the horizon is quantum computing. In traditional computing, like we have today, information is stored in bits of data, and these bits of data are either on or off (zeros or ones). Layers of software then translate this binary data into information that a human can understand.

With quantum computing, data is processed at the subatomic level in quantum bits (known as qbits), and the big difference is that these qbits can be a zero, one, or any state that is a linear combination of zero and one (superposition). The advantage is quantum computers will theoretically process data in seconds that would take a traditional computer thousands and thousands of hours or more to process.

Ironically, quantum computers of today are as large as the Cray computers once were, and must be chilled to absolute zero to function. They’re not ready from prime time yet. It will be interesting to see how these quantum computers evolve over the next decade or two.


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[Boothroyd]

I sat on one of those Cray supercomputer benches at their Minnesota HQ back in the 1990's. At that time they wouldn't talk about their customer list, but it was mostly government agencies (weather, nuclear warhead simulation testing, intelligence agencies, etc.). They were a client of ours.

I do think of that processing power comparison often when looking at my iPhone and laptop.

[enjoythemusic]

Originally Posted by Krash

It will be interesting to see how these quantum computers will evolve over the next decade or two.

I'm looking forward to Westworld capabilities.

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[Krash]

Originally Posted by enjoythemusic

I'm looking forward to Westworld capabilities.

Attachment 1455020

That greatly exceeds my expectations for quantum computing. lol


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[enjoythemusic]

Originally Posted by Krash

That greatly exceeds my expectations for quantum computing. lol

It's ALWAYS a money maker. AI gals making bank today, 3D interactive 'tomorrow'.

[INC]

Originally Posted by enjoythemusic

I'm looking forward to Westworld capabilities.

I wonder, why...

[enjoythemusic]

Originally Posted by INC

I wonder, why...

Every Sunday afternoon she can wind all the clocks here. Help my traditional wife by cleaning up after she bakes / cooks, and even water the plants.

She is probably better at building Boeing airplanes too.

[AzPaul]

If you're going to build robots anyway, why not make them as pleasing as possible?

[Phrank]

Originally Posted by Swearengen

Even in the last couple of decades there have been huge advances in the price/performance ratio. Compare a Raspberry Pi with a Sun Sparcstation:

"Sun SparcStation 20 vs Raspberry Pi
Sun 27 December 2015 technology Gaige B. Paulsen

For those of us old timers, here's an amusing shootout between a SparcStation 20 and a Raspberry Pi, including both the Pi and the Pi2 (but unfortunately not the Pi0).

For those unfamiliar with the SS20, it was a workhorse desktop in the 1990's. Early pizza-box design and pricing out at well over $10,000 at the time (according to the article, closer to $25K today). It was an awesome desktop workstation, and was seen in some equipment racks as a "cheap" alternative server platform. For comparison, the Pi sells for $20, and the Pi2 for $35.

The short version is that a computer which costs roughly 1/1000 of the price performs about 7x as fast for operations (and for the record, there is no category where the SparcStation wins). For those keeping score, that's a 7000x increase in price/performance in 20 years."

Sun Microsystems...Sparc Server and station, wow, that caused a memory bubble to burst into my mind....hadn't heard that in years.

Think I still have a Sun Microsystems "smart" ring from when they were pushing net personal workstations, ring would log you in, open doors, give permissions....going to see if I can find it now.

edited to add: found the Sun Microsystems ring, must've been when Java first released.....sheesh, lots of great memories....thanks Blansky!

[Blansky]

Originally Posted by Phrank

Sun Microsystems...Sparc Server and station, wow, that caused a memory bubble to burst into my mind....hadn't heard that in years.

Think I still have a Sun Microsystems "smart" ring from when they were pushing net personal workstations, ring would log you in, open doors, give permissions....going to see if I can find it now.

edited to add: found the Sun Microsystems ring, must've been when Java first released.....sheesh, lots of great memories....thanks Blansky!

When I lived in San Jose in the early to late 90s I played hockey with a bunch of guys from Sun Microsystems. In fact Scott McNealy played as well and had a couple of teams which he sponsored and nobody had to pay for ice time. Everything was free.

Sun was the first time I'd seen a "campus". It was a name I associated with college/university but a Silicon Valley campus was a corporation with a bunch of large buildings all in one area. Generally with a guard at a gate. I later realized they were all over the Silicon Valley set back from the road.

I think Sun had about 10-12 large buildings in each campus and had a number of campuses. Back then land was fairly cheap in the area, and the computer companies basically annexed San Jose as they built their "campuses" down from Palo Alto (Stanford) all the way down the corridor to San Jose. Previously San Jose had just been a sleepy farming area.

I remember guys in the dressing room all talking shop and the name Java was mentioned a lot. I had no idea what the hell they were talking about. It was the first dressing room I'd ever been in that the talk was not about women, cars, etc etc.. it was all about computers stuff, since they were all engineers and engineers that became sales guys.

An interesting read on ex employees get togethers and your ring is mentioned. (from 2014) https://spectrum.ieee.org/after-the-...ories-come-out

https://thenewstack.io/sun-microsyst...d-of-its-time/

[Boothroyd]

I remember when San Jose start-ups were referred to by type, regarding the type of orchard crop their office building had been constructed on. Apricot, Apple, etc.

[INC]

Originally Posted by enjoythemusic

Help my traditional wife by cleaning up after she bakes / cooks, and even water the plants.

She is probably better at building Boeing airplanes too.

I think the latter is not a big challenge, but the perfect satisfaction of the former goal can cause serious difficulties And this can cause difficulties, especially in the case of the model you have chosen

[Phrank]

Originally Posted by Blansky

When I lived in San Jose in the early to late 90s I played hockey with a bunch of guys from Sun Microsystems. In fact Scott McNealy played as well and had a couple of teams which he sponsored and nobody had to pay for ice time. Everything was free.

Sun was the first time I'd seen a "campus". It was a name I associated with college/university but a Silicon Valley campus was a corporation with a bunch of large buildings all in one area. Generally with a guard at a gate. I later realized they were all over the Silicon Valley set back from the road.

I think Sun had about 10-12 large buildings in each campus and had a number of campuses. Back then land was fairly cheap in the area, and the computer companies basically annexed San Jose as they built their "campuses" down from Palo Alto (Stanford) all the way down the corridor to San Jose. Previously San Jose had just been a sleepy farming area.

I remember guys in the dressing room all talking shop and the name Java was mentioned a lot. I had no idea what the hell they were talking about. It was the first dressing room I'd ever been in that the talk was not about women, cars, etc etc.. it was all about computers stuff, since they were all engineers and engineers that became sales guys.

An interesting read on ex employees get togethers and your ring is mentioned. (from 2014) https://spectrum.ieee.org/after-the-...ories-come-out

https://thenewstack.io/sun-microsyst...d-of-its-time/

Great read thanks!

Yes we had a massive Sun Microsystems set-up in a start-up offshoot of a major Canadian Telecom in the early 90's, I was responsible for all the infrastructure, operations and development teams, and we attended many Sun Microsystems events and participated in many of their technical trials.

The Cloud remark is quite interesting, as they were ahead of their time. We had some Sparc stations, where it would instantly "download" your entire personal PC with the ring, anywhere in the world, was an exciting time.

Of course, the F1 Weekends with Pit Passes and VIP treatment in Montreal for several years along with Oracle were legendary as well, before Enron came along and ruined all the fun....

Thanks again....

[enjoythemusic]

Wow, what an interesting coincidence...

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[77T]

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?


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[77T]

Originally Posted by Phrank

Great read thanks!

Yes we had a massive Sun Microsystems set-up in a start-up offshoot of a major Canadian Telecom in the early 90's, I was responsible for all the infrastructure, operations and development teams, and we attended many Sun Microsystems events and participated in many of their technical trials.

The Cloud remark is quite interesting, as they were ahead of their time. We had some Sparc stations, where it would instantly "download" your entire personal PC with the ring, anywhere in the world, was an exciting time.

Of course, the F1 Weekends with Pit Passes and VIP treatment in Montreal for several years along with Oracle were legendary as well, before Enron came along and ruined all the fun....

Thanks again....

That was a cool time for you.

I was a leader in a Partner Company with Sun - for all things - NAS :chuckle - back in late '80's...

Met with Scott several times - what a bright guy. Usually had lunch in the employee cafe when at HQ - always interested in others opinions.

I loved some of his sayings.
Said something 20+ years ago that went viral after our partnership timed out:

‘At 10 times revenues, to give you a 10-year payback, I have to pay you 100% of revenues for 10 straight years in dividends. That assumes I can get that by my shareholders. That assumes I have zero cost of goods sold, which is very hard for a computer company. That assumes zero expenses, which is really hard with 39,000 employees. That assumes I pay no taxes, which is very hard. And that assumes you pay no taxes on your dividends, which is kind of illegal. And that assumes with zero R&D for the next 10 years, I can maintain the current revenue run rate. Now, having done that, would any of you like to buy my stock at $64? Do you realize how ridiculous those basic assumptions are? You don’t need any transparency. You don’t need any footnotes. What were you thinking?’

Think about that next time a Tech company promises the moon like we see today.

As for the original post, Moore underestimated our optimism...


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[Phrank]

Originally Posted by 77T

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?


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“I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain."

[Phrank]

Originally Posted by 77T

That was a cool time for you.

I was a leader in a Partner Company with Sun - for all things - NAS :chuckle - back in late '80's...

Met with Scott several times - what a bright guy. Usually had lunch in the employee cafe when at HQ - always interested in others opinions.

I loved some of his sayings.
Said something 20+ years ago that went viral after our partnership timed out:

‘At 10 times revenues, to give you a 10-year payback, I have to pay you 100% of revenues for 10 straight years in dividends. That assumes I can get that by my shareholders. That assumes I have zero cost of goods sold, which is very hard for a computer company. That assumes zero expenses, which is really hard with 39,000 employees. That assumes I pay no taxes, which is very hard. And that assumes you pay no taxes on your dividends, which is kind of illegal. And that assumes with zero R&D for the next 10 years, I can maintain the current revenue run rate. Now, having done that, would any of you like to buy my stock at $64? Do you realize how ridiculous those basic assumptions are? You don’t need any transparency. You don’t need any footnotes. What were you thinking?’

Think about that next time a Tech company promises the moon like we see today.

As for the original post, Moore underestimated our optimism...


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They were fun times for sure, but also filled with intense concentration, long hours but all of it was a blast, 120 hour weeks, intense development cycles, one of the most exciting times in my life, then the bubble burst.

Was still lots of fun up until around 2006 for me, conquering a new frontier and the magic got kinda lost for me.

And exactly, promises made vs the ability to deliver...much more sunlight between the two these days.

[enjoythemusic]

Robotic implementation aside, AI is making bank (as in many million$ per year). More AI, more energy consumption of course. Even the Olympics love AI-generated influencers. This 'wave' of tech is perhaps the most..... (nearly) seamlessly personal on Videodrome.




PS: Look, the Heathkit Hero Jr. robot on the cover of Byte, loved that issue.

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