How many PlayStation 2s would make a Galaxy S6?
A fun new visualization compares old tech with new and finds that computing power has increased a trillionfold since 1956.
Did you know that two Nintendo Entertainment Systems combined have the same computing power as the Apollo Guidance Computer that sent men to the moon? Or that the
phone has as much power as five PlayStation 2s under its hood?Those are the conclusions of website Experts Exchange, shown in an infographic that looks at computing power over time.
The site not only shows results like the ones above, it also finds that society's computing power overall has increased 1 trillion times from 1956 to 2015. To arrive at this calculation the folks at Experts Exchange used a comparison of FLOPS, or floating operations per second. FLOPS let researchers compare machines of different sizes with different processors using a common denominator.
While it's fun to contemplate the idea that it would take 18,400 PlayStation 4s to add up to the computing power of the Tianhe-2 Supercomputer -- considered the world's current fastest computer -- it's perhaps an even better sign of just how fast technology is moving that the computing power of the new Apple Watch is twice that of the Apple iPhone 4.
Experts Exchange is a membership site that pairs tech experts with other people in the industry needing help solving tricky problems. The main infographic is embedded below, but you can see a larger version of it at the Experts Exchange website here.
