When you look at the chart below, you might think that CSIRAC was a pretty slow machine, but you must compare it to what was available to the scientists of the time.
Scientists of the 1940’s would employ one or more computers (generally a person operating a mechanical adding machine), or manually perform complex computations by hand, to complete their research. Calculations could be performed at about the rate of one operation per second.
CSIRAC, although slow by today’s standards, was faster than anything else available at the time at 1000 operations per second.
| CSIRAC - 1956 | Desktop PC - 1996 | Laptop PC - 2000 | Smart phone - 2014 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Speed | .001MHz | 100MHz | 500MHz | 1400Mhz |
| Word size | 20 bit | 32 bit | 32 bit | 64 bit |
| RAM | 768 words (1,920 bytes) | 8,388,608 bytes | 536,870,912 bytes | 1,073,741,824 bytes |
| Disk capacity | 2048 words (5,120 bytes) | 1,048,576,000 bytes | 19,327,352,832 bytes | 137,438,953,472 bytes |
| Power consumption | 30,000 watts | 250 watts | 50 watts | 3 watts |
| Weight | 2,000 Kg | 25 Kg | 2.6 Kg | 129g |
Please note: Figures are approximate