Computers - Then and Now

Today we will take a look at computers in the early days of large scale commercial mainframes, and compare that to a mid level 2017 Laptop computer.

1965 IBM 360/30 Mainframe and 2311 Disk Drive       2017 15.6" ACER Laptop
                                    Click on Images to Enlarge

​IBM introduced the first mass production mainframe computers in 1964; the 360/30

- Cost in 1965 dollars - about $133,000
- Cost in 2017 dollars - about $1.045 million
- Memory - Up to 64,000 characters
- Instructions/second, about 34,500
- 2311 Disk unit had 6 disk platters
- Total disk storage 7.5 million characters
- Software DOS (Disk Operating System)
​- DOS the first compatible across all 360s

IBM introduced the first mass production mainframe computers in 1964; the 360/30

- Cost in 1965 dollars - about $133,000
- Cost in 2017 dollars - about $1.045 million
- Memory - Up to 64,000 characters
- Instructions/second, about 34,500
- 2311 Disk unit had 6 disk platters
- Total disk storage 7.5 million characters
- Software DOS (Disk Operating System)
​- DOS the first compatible across all 360s

​ACER laptop considered mid-range, aimed at students or for general home or travel use

- Cost in 2017 dollars - About $500
- Memory 8 billion characters
- Instructions/second about 2.5 billion
- 1TB hard drive (1 million billion characters)
- Windows 10 software
​- Multiple extras for wifi, file transfers, etc.

Prepared by Keith Millard August 31, 2017

Note:  Much of my programming from 1968 to 1975 was on 360/30s, programming language was COBOL, lines of computer code were processed on to punch cards, then loaded into memory using a card reader.  These card files were then compiled into operational programs.  Some of these Accounting programs contained up to 10,000 lines (or cards) of programming code

 
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