One can now buy 16GB (and soon 32GB) of RAM for the new Mac Pro's. I usually buy RAM from Ramjet where the 16GB is only $329.
My first Apple ][+ had like 4K and I still remember upgrading IBM PC's with 16K of the little memory chips with legs.
My first hard drive (an Apple Profile) was 5MB and I had an early model IBM PC XT when I was at General Dynamics that had a whopping 10MB hard drive.
The specs on today's computers are amazing today compared to the early 80's when I started.
I still wonder if we will ever hit a place where the uses are finally outweighed by the hardware. I haven't hit that place yet but then again my lead computer is still a dual G5 and I mostly develop on a wimpy 1st gen MacBookPro.
visitor 03/06/2009 13:38
apparently you don't have an email address posted, so this is really for your "all posts" page: let readers click on "date posted" to re-sort and generate a chronological listing.
codist 03/09/2009 08:37
Done.
bobert 04/03/2009 15:40
Yes, the specs have indeed increased at least as fast as Moore's Law, at an exponential rate that is flabbergasting.
However, there is one set of code that takes up every ounce of computing power you throw at it and gobbles it up like zombies eating brains and still runs like molasses.
gcc
It is pathetic that my day-to-day builds on an 8-core Xeon Mac Pro are slower in 2009 than when we were writing Trapeze on Mac Plusses in 1985.