3M computer
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The 3M computer industrial goal was first proposed in the early 1980s by Raj Reddy and his colleagues at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) as a minimum specification for academic and technical workstations. It requires at least one megabyte of memory, a one megapixel display with 1024×1024 1-bit pixels, and one million instructions per second (MIPS) of processing power.[1] It was also often said that it should cost no more than one "megapenny" or Template:US$.[2][3][4]
At that time, a typical desktop computer such as an early IBM Personal Computer might have 1/8 of a megabyte of memory (128K), 1/4 of a million pixels (640Template:Resx400 monochrome display), and run at 1/3 million instructions per second (Script error: No such module "val". 8088).
The concept was inspired by the Xerox Alto which had been designed in the 1970s at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center. Several Alto workstations were donated to CMU, Stanford, and MIT in 1979. An early 3M computer is the PERQ Workstation made by Three Rivers Computer Corporation.[5] It has a 1 million P-codes (Pascal instructions) per second processor,[6] 256 KB of RAM (upgradeable to 1 MB), and a 768×1024 pixel display on a Script error: No such module "convert". display.[7] Though not quite a true 3M machine, it was used as the initial 3M machine for the CMU Scientific Personal Integrated Computing Environment (SPICE) workstation project.
The Stanford University Network SUN workstation, designed by Andy Bechtolsheim in 1980, is another example.[2][8][9] It was then commercialized by Sun Microsystems in 1982.[8][9] Apollo Computer (in the Route 128 region) announced the Apollo/Domain computer in 1981.[9] By 1986, CMU stated that it expected at least two companies to introduce 3M computers by the end of the year, with academic pricing of Template:US$ and retail pricing of Template:US$, and Stanford University planned to deploy them in computer labs.[10] The first "megapenny" 3M workstation was the Sun-2/50 diskless desktop workstation with a list price of Template:US$ in 1986.
The original NeXT Computer was introduced in 1988 as a 3M machine by Steve Jobs, who first heard this term at Brown University.[11] The NeXT MegaPixel Display has just over Script error: No such module "val". with 2 bits per pixel.[12] However, floating-point performance, powered with the Motorola 68882 FPU is only about Script error: No such module "val"..[13]
Modern desktop computers exceed the 3M memory and speed requirements by many thousands of times, however 1080p screen pixels are only 2 times larger and 4K 8 times larger, but they are full color so each pixel uses at least 24 times as many bits.
References
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- ↑ Script error: No such module "Citation/CS1".
- ↑ a b Script error: No such module "Citation/CS1".
- ↑ 1990, Eric S. Raymond, megapenny, Jargon File 2.2.1 (June 12, 1990)
- (meg'a-pen'ee) n. $10,000 (1 cent * 10e6). Used semi-humorously as a unit in comparing computer cost/performance figures.
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1". United States Gross Domestic Product deflator figures follow the MeasuringWorth series.
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ PERQ Publicity: ICL's PERQ Brochure, Chilton Computing, UK.
- ↑ PERQ Publicity: ICL's PERQ Leaflets 1985
- ↑ a b Script error: No such module "citation/CS1". CSL Technical Report 229 (First author name is misspelled on cover)
- ↑ a b c Script error: No such module "Citation/CS1".
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ NeXT User's Reference, 4/90, pg. 242, Reorder Product #N6002
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
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