We’ve come a long way. In 1951, Univac, the first commercial computer, made its way into computer history. It was 25 feet by 50 feet, weighed 8 tons, and cost close to $1 million. It had a processing speed of 2.25 megahertz (MHz) and a memory capacity of 1,000 words.
Today, 57 years later, for less than $1,000 we can buy a mobile computer that is smaller than a briefcase, weighs five pounds, and has a speed of 2 gigahertz (GHz) and a storage memory of 40 gigabytes (GB).
To put this in perspective: If cars had developed in the same fashion, a sedan that sold in 1951 for $2,000 and got 12 miles to the gallon would today sell for $2 and get 12,000 miles per gallon.
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