One of the things that astounds me wrt Moore’s law is how stupidly good modern MOSFETs are, compared to the common examples from a decade or two ago (looking at you IRF540).
I’ve worked on several projects which used MOSFETS so small I could fit *several* of them on my fingernail, yet they’re carrying over 10A while hardly breaking a sweat – at just 3v3 gate drive! (examples include IRLHM630 [N], DMP3007 [P], AON6978 [dual N totem])
When I was learning electronics, this capability was entirely unheard of and almost inconceivable, yet now I trivially throw together megahertz-speed DC-DC power conversion the size of my thumbnail, and multi hundred watt motor drivers the size of my thumb..
Admittedly I have no idea how this works, but it seems crazy to me that they needed more than two vacuum tubes per volatile bit. No wonder the computer was huge!
What is astonishing is that the phone which was used to take my photo has tens of BILLIONS of transistors. Not to mention all other complexities which bring it all together. Never ceases to amaze me.
ENIAC radically predates the period when 8 bits became known as a byte.
This appears to be part of an accumulator, which numbers stored in decimal. Wikipedia indicates that 36 tubes could store one digit. More like a register than RAM.
i did an oral report on the history of computers a couple years back (thank god for elective classes) and i had the eniac at the beginning/2nd thing of the list.
One of the things that astounds me wrt Moore’s law is how stupidly good modern MOSFETs are, compared to the common examples from a decade or two ago (looking at you IRF540).
I’ve worked on several projects which used MOSFETS so small I could fit *several* of them on my fingernail, yet they’re carrying over 10A while hardly breaking a sweat – at just 3v3 gate drive! (examples include IRLHM630 [N], DMP3007 [P], AON6978 [dual N totem])
When I was learning electronics, this capability was entirely unheard of and almost inconceivable, yet now I trivially throw together megahertz-speed DC-DC power conversion the size of my thumbnail, and multi hundred watt motor drivers the size of my thumb..
More like “Thank you, transistors”.
Moore’s Law could never apply to tube-state devices.
Admittedly I have no idea how this works, but it seems crazy to me that they needed more than two vacuum tubes per volatile bit. No wonder the computer was huge!
Is this at Penn?
What counts as a byte on the ENIAC?
Are the six valves at the bottom the bits (flip-flops)? Was this a 6 bit machine?
I have a photo with the world’s first transistor:
[https://twitter.com/TheSignalPath/status/930529334032551938?s=20](https://twitter.com/TheSignalPath/status/930529334032551938?s=20)
What is astonishing is that the phone which was used to take my photo has tens of BILLIONS of transistors. Not to mention all other complexities which bring it all together. Never ceases to amaze me.
Does anyone have an idea how byte looks now, I mean ram byte x-ray microscope photo?
This is history
ENIAC radically predates the period when 8 bits became known as a byte.
This appears to be part of an accumulator, which numbers stored in decimal. Wikipedia indicates that 36 tubes could store one digit. More like a register than RAM.
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i did an oral report on the history of computers a couple years back (thank god for elective classes) and i had the eniac at the beginning/2nd thing of the list.