According to Boing Boing, the first portable computer was 20 tons and fit in two semi-trailers in the 1950s. By 1958, that had dropped to 197 pounds, and by 1973 there was a 50 pound portable computer.
My own family's first portable computer was the Osborne which was about 25 pounds which hit the market in 1981.
The computer I'm using right now, a MacBook Air, is 3 pounds, although I have a newer laptop that is considerably heavier that I use mostly as a desktop computer.
Of course, my phone, which probably has more computing power than the Osborne did and a screen almost as large, weighs far less.
UPDATE June 15, 2018:
From the comments:
UPDATE June 15, 2018:
From the comments:
An iPhone 8 weighs 0.45 pounds (7.13 ounces), about 55 times lighter.
Dave Barnes said...
Dual 5¼-inch, single-sided 40 track floppy disk drives (1.2 MB each)
4 MHz Z80 CPU (note: single core, 8-bit)
64 KB main memory
5-inch, 52 character × 24 line monochrome CRT display
iPhone 8
64 GB solid state storage (“disk”) = 30,000 times more
2.39 GHz A11 Bionic chip CPU (6 cores, 64-bit) = ~500 times more powerful
2GB memory = 31,000 time more
4.7-inch widescreen LCD. 1334-by-750-pixel resolution at 326 ppi. = smaller but much greater resolution and in color
Osborne
ReplyDeleteDual 5¼-inch, single-sided 40 track floppy disk drives (1.2 MB each)
4 MHz Z80 CPU (note: single core, 8-bit)
64 KB main memory
5-inch, 52 character × 24 line monochrome CRT display
iPhone 8
64 GB solid state storage (“disk”) = 30,000 times more
2.39 GHz A11 Bionic chip CPU (6 cores, 64-bit) = ~500 times more powerful
2GB memory = 31,000 time more
4.7-inch widescreen LCD. 1334-by-750-pixel resolution at 326 ppi. = smaller but much greater resolution and in color