2007-01-25 12:30:30 · 9 answers · asked by ding p 1 in Computers & Internet ➔ Hardware ➔ Desktops
In 1965 I attended a major Big Ten university which had a single experimental analog computer based on vacuum tube on-off switching. It had about 16k of memory (total).
It was housed in a two story building about 65 feet square, and it occupied the entire floor area, leaving only a few narrow walkways.
2007-01-25 12:39:04 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Using vaccum tubes like in old mainframes... way too large to even think about building. As it was, mainframes 50 years ago took up extremely large rooms, and put out immense amounts of heat. All that, and they were only an extremely small fraction as powerful as a Pentium 4 processor. It is kind of impossible to say an exact size, but definitely way too large to build.
2007-01-25 20:36:54 · answer #2 · answered by Dizzle 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Without the transistor, you simply couldn't make a computer as powerful as a P4. It would literally take the electricity too long to get from one end of the machine to the other.
The most powerful computer you could feasibly make would using electromagnetic relays, and would be the size of a warehouse. It wouldn't be anywhere near as powerful as any modern computing system.
2007-01-25 20:39:02 · answer #3 · answered by Chip 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
God I am showing my age!
Durham University in the UK, had a computer that took up three rooms, and it had less processing power than your pocket calculator!
So a Pentium 4 using valve technology, a tower block easy!
2007-01-25 20:39:46 · answer #4 · answered by tattie_herbert 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The first Computer was as big as a house
2007-01-25 20:35:53 · answer #5 · answered by Yahoo Answer Rat 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
A mansion I would say, producing heat from vaccuum tubes equal to the energy of small tactical nuke.
2007-01-25 22:18:12 · answer #6 · answered by Andy T 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I guess the question would be how much space do 50 million tubes take up.
2007-01-25 20:40:55 · answer #7 · answered by William S 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
oh - Houston Astrodome for sure, maybe Mall of America??
2007-01-25 20:41:16 · answer #8 · answered by singbloger1953a 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
a 5-story building i guess.
2007-01-25 20:40:11 · answer #9 · answered by johann 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋