![SupercomputerFeat-840x420[1]](https://i0.wp.com/the-digital-reader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/SupercomputerFeat-840x4201-250x125.png?resize=250%2C125)
Between our smartphones, tablets, and ereaders, many of us carry one or more mobile device around without realizing just how powerful it is.
Sure we may joke about how a graphing calculator has more processing power than the entire world had in 1950, but it turns out that the quip is even more true than I had realized.
The following infographic breaks down how the devices we have today compare with supercomputers of the past.
For example, the iPad 2 would be one of the 5 most powerful computers in the world if it fell through a wormhole to 1994. (Of course, that would only be true if measured in terms of sheer numbers, not actual computing ability, which raises a whole different issue of general-purpose vs restricted computing.) And that tablet isn’t even all that impressive by the standards of 2015; there are plenty of $100 tablets that are more powerful.
![infographic-about-computers_547764034c660[1]](https://i0.wp.com/the-digital-reader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/infographic-about-computers_547764034c6601.jpg)
You ever read John Birmingham’s AXIS OF TIME series?
In it a multinational naval task force ca 2050 falls through a wormhole into 1941. And unlike the folks behind FINAL COUNTDOWN he doesn’t weasel out of the mess it causes.
Their tablet computers and caching internet routers and servers really blow a hole in history. (Essentially, they bring the internet along with them. All of it.)
Highly recommended.
I’ve read the first couple books, and was planning to read more. He’s a convincing writer (“USS Hillary Clinton”, snort).
And yes, I’ve seen that movie, too. It didn’t amount to much of a story.
The novelization did a good job of patching the plot holes in the movie, especially the biggest one of all: the time storm’s timing and manueverability. Answer: it was artificial, a bootstrap play to close the time loop just as the Commander lived it.
On Axis of time: the third is the best.
I wish he would go back and finish the story.
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[…] A The Digital Reader oldalán találtuk ezt a rendkívül érdekes infografikát, ami a számítógépek fejl?dését mutatja be. Egészen elképeszt? látni, hogy mennyit fejl?dött a technológia pár év alatt. Például egy mai átlagos tablet tíz évvel ezel?tt még egy komoly asztali pc-nek felelt volna meg, húsz évvel ezel?tt pedig ott lett volna a világ öt leger?sebb szuperszámítógépe között… (link) […]