Technology
Visualizing the Trillion-Fold Increase in Computing Power
On July 20, 1969, millions of people received an inspirational jolt from watching two brave astronauts take humankind’s first steps on the moon. Rightly so, those astronauts, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, are now household names to many – however, their Apollo Guidance Computer (AGC) remains the unsung hero that made their moon landing possible in the first place.
With processing power equivalent to a pair of Nintendo consoles, the AGC wasn’t flashy. But despite its technical limitations, the AGC functioned admirably as the interface for guidance, navigation, and control of the spacecraft to get humans to their first lunar destination.
To Infinity and Beyond?
If a pair of Nintendo consoles can get us to the moon, there’s no telling what the future may hold as computing power continues to grow.
Today’s infographic comes to us from Experts Exchange, and it visualizes the 1 trillion-fold increase in computing performance from 1956 to 2015.
The Incredible Shrinking Hard Disk
In the 1970s, data storage equipment was serious business. The IBM 305 RAMAC, for example, weighed a ton and measured 16 square feet. The RAMAC’s storage capacity? Just 5MB.
Thankfully, hard disks are no longer the size of filing cabinets. The animation below visualizes just how compact terabytes of storage have become.
Computing in the Real World
A relatable touchpoint for many people will be ever-changing graphics quality of video games.
The journey from Atari’s pixelated stick figures to today’s crisp, hyper-realistic graphics is a surprisingly good visual aid to help us understand increases in computing power over many years.
The journey from Pong to Call of Duty is inexorably linked to processing power. As the comprehensive list below demonstrates, modern gaming systems are so powerful that even the revolutionary Xbox 360 now looks quaint in comparison.
| YEAR | MFLOPS | CONSOLE |
|---|---|---|
| 1976 | 0 | Fairchild Channel F (Pong) |
| 1977 | 0 | Atari 2600 |
| 1983 | 0 | NES |
| 1986 | 0 | Atari 7800 |
| 1988 | 0 | Sega Genesis |
| 1990 | 0 | SNES |
| 1991 | 0 | Sega CD |
| 1994 | 0 | Sony PlayStation |
| 1994 | 0 | Sega Saturn |
| 1996 | 200 | Nintendo 64 |
| 2000 | 6,200 | Sony PlayStation 2 |
| 2005 | 240,000 | Xbox 360 |
| 2006 | 459,200 | Sony PlayStation 3 |
| 2013 | 1,228,800 | Xbox One |
| 2013 | 1,843,200 | Sony PlayStation 4 |
Our ExaFLOP Future
Though performance drivers are flattening out, supercomputing continues to hit new milestones. The next one on the list is exascale computing – and at that level, machines will be capable of a million-trillion calculations a second.
Why do we even need computers that powerful? For one, some of the biggest challenges facing humankind are extremely complicated, and we just don’t have the computing power to tackle them as effectively as we could. Two relevant examples are climate modeling and life sciences.
All these advances are pushing us closer to a major symbolic milestone: computers as powerful and complex as the human brain.
Technology
Ranked: The World’s Top 10 Electronics Exporters (2000-2021)
Here are the largest electronics exporters by country, highlighting how electronics trade has increasingly shifted to Asia over 20 years.
Top 10 Electronics Exporters in the World (2000-2021)
From personal computers to memory chips, the electronics trade plays a vital role in the world economy. In 2021, global electronics exports reached $4.1 trillion according to McKinsey Global Institute.
This graphic shows the 10 largest electronics exporters in the world, based on data from McKinsey, and how they’ve changed since 2000.
Ranked: The Top 10 Exporters of Electronics
Which countries are the leading exporters of electronics, and how has this shifted over the last two decades?
| Rank | Country | Share of Total 2021 | Share of Total 2000 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 🇨🇳 China | 34% | 9% |
| 2 | 🇹🇼 Taiwan | 11% | 6% |
| 3 | 🇰🇷 South Korea | 7% | 5% |
| 4 | 🇻🇳 Vietnam | 5% | N/A |
| 5 | 🇲🇾 Malaysia | 5% | 5% |
| 6 | 🇯🇵 Japan | 4% | 13% |
| 7 | 🇺🇸 United States | 4% | 16% |
| 8 | 🇩🇪 Germany | 4% | 5% |
| 9 | 🇲🇽 Mexico | 3% | 3% |
| 10 | 🇹🇭 Thailand | 3% | N/A |
| Other | 20% | 30% |
We can see in the above table how global electronics trade has become more concentrated in Asia, specifically China and Taiwan. As an electronics powerhouse, 34% of the world’s electronic goods in 2021 came from China, representing $1.4 trillion in value.
Home to leading firms like TSMC, Taiwan also plays a major role due to its prowess in semiconductor manufacturing—highlighting the island’s global importance.
But not all of Asia has been thriving. In 2000, Japan was a global electronics powerhouse responsible for 13% of the industry’s exports, but has seen its share shrink to 4% in 2021. The U.S. has also sheen its electronics lead shrink, with exports down from 16% of the global total in 2000 to just 4% in 2021.
Several factors have driven this shift. Instead of manufacturing electronics domestically, the U.S. has outsourced technology to countries where manufacturing, production, and labor costs are lower. However, recently, the U.S. is focusing on reshoring semiconductor production specifically given its role in national security, as seen through the $52.7 billion CHIPS Act.
-
GDP7 days agoVisualizing U.S. GDP by Industry in 2023
-
Brands2 weeks agoRanked: Fast Food Brands with the Most U.S. Locations
-
Economy2 weeks agoVisualizing 30 Years of Imports from U.S. Trading Partners
-
Markets2 weeks agoRanked: The Biggest Retailers in the U.S. by Revenue
-
Globalization2 weeks agoThe Top 50 Largest Importers in the World
-
Maps2 weeks agoMapped: Which Countries Recognize Israel or Palestine, or Both?
-
Misc1 week agoRanked: America’s Best Universities
-
Countries1 week agoRanked: Share of Global Arms Imports in 2022