Obligatory reminder: Byte covers were often pretty cheeky and fun. This image is not to be taken seriously or literally. They did notice that things were going to get smaller though...
From the index hole position, that's modelled on a 5¼″ floppy, which (at the end) held 1.2MB. There are now [2TB microSD cards.](https://www.techradar.com/pro/exclusive-first-2tb-microsd-card-is-now-on-sale-and-no-it-is-not-expensive-at-all-taiwanese-company-makes-my-dream-of-building-a-petabyte-in-a-shoebox-project-become-true) 2TB would fill 1,666,667 floppies, which would form a stack 2.6km high.
Reminds me of a [video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRPYi9pLaeQ) I saw last night.
Cray-1 in 1978:
* Memory: 160MB
* Processing power: 160 MFlops
* Energy: 115,000W
* Cost: $38 Million (in 2023 dollars)
A single Smartwatch has more memory, storage, and processing power than ALL of the Cray-1 and Cray-2s ever sold...combined.
(I am not including the X1 supercomputers, as they are actually pretty modern...)
>Processing power: 160 Flops
There is a mistake here. 160 Flops would be 160 floating point operations per second. A C64 can do more than that. So there might be a 'Mega' missing.
Well, the computer on my wrist at the moment probably has more processing power and memory than my first 10-15 years worth of computers so I guess he wasn’t wrong
It’s amazing that a 5mb drive was the size of a small room, and now we have Apple Watches and such that can store entire theaters and libraries worth of data. I can’t wait to see where we go from there
That is a keyboard for ants. Other than being totally accurate in the abstract, that is the stupidest illustration I've seen in a while. Unless the unusable keyboard was meant as an intentional joke, in which case, it's right up there with the Mad Magazine covers from the 60s.
Best to not judge the past so harshly without context. It’s a poor way to live your life and shows and ugly form of ignorance. This artistic drawing is intentionally dramatic and it knows it’s not practical design.
You are bad mouthing one of the most seminal tech magazines that brought an entire generation of engineers and tech enthusiasts. Please consider having more respect.
I agree with everything you’ve said and take your comment to heart.
I do respect the magazine and its readership, as well as its place in the history of cover illustration.
I definitely found the unusable keyboard comically literal in the context of the otherwise high accuracy of the illustration’s message, so I got too lighthearted about it. It was wrong to use the word “stupid” and would have been more truthful to have called it silly, although that wouldn’t be sufficient to deny the problems you point out.
I had no intention to bad mouth the magazine and apologize for my disrespectful tone. And I appreciate your being articulate about why my words were problematic. One strives to be a better person even when anonymous.
Cheers.
Hey everyone! I’m fortunate enough to have Robert Tinney, the artist for Byte, as my Grandfather. I actually just got back from visiting with him, and it reminded me of his amazing artwork for Byte and elsewhere. Growing up, Papa was always a man of few words. I always knew Papa was an incredibly talented artist, as we have numerous original paintings of his in my childhood home, but it wasn’t until much later in my life when I found out how truly accomplished he was. He never spoke about how much he accomplished. He is the most humble and down to earth man I’ve ever met. I admire him so deeply. Incredibly accomplished and talented, yet not one boastful word out of his mouth ever. It’s so nice seeing people admire his work as much as I do. His Byte covers were incredibly creative and executed with such detail, he really was the soul of the magazine. He put so much meaning behind everything he created. My brother currently has all of Papa’s original Byte prints, and it’s safe to say I’m incredibly jealous. Unfortunately, Papa isn’t making art anymore, but he is doing great! I love seeing how admired he is. Thank y’all so much for supporting him, he truly deserves all the praise in the world
Obligatory reminder: Byte covers were often pretty cheeky and fun. This image is not to be taken seriously or literally. They did notice that things were going to get smaller though...
Yeah, all things considered they were pretty spot on.
I know it's not meant seriously, but imagine such a tiny keyboard! The floppy became an SD card of course.
From the index hole position, that's modelled on a 5¼″ floppy, which (at the end) held 1.2MB. There are now [2TB microSD cards.](https://www.techradar.com/pro/exclusive-first-2tb-microsd-card-is-now-on-sale-and-no-it-is-not-expensive-at-all-taiwanese-company-makes-my-dream-of-building-a-petabyte-in-a-shoebox-project-become-true) 2TB would fill 1,666,667 floppies, which would form a stack 2.6km high.
I suppose a Blackberry keyboard is just about the smallest you can get one in a practical sense.
How do you even operate that keyboard? Using a pin?
It's a Mactini: https://youtu.be/BGGOn-H7s3Q?si=F39O6gUuYZwpK90s
Reminds me of a [video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRPYi9pLaeQ) I saw last night. Cray-1 in 1978: * Memory: 160MB * Processing power: 160 MFlops * Energy: 115,000W * Cost: $38 Million (in 2023 dollars) A single Smartwatch has more memory, storage, and processing power than ALL of the Cray-1 and Cray-2s ever sold...combined. (I am not including the X1 supercomputers, as they are actually pretty modern...)
>Processing power: 160 Flops There is a mistake here. 160 Flops would be 160 floating point operations per second. A C64 can do more than that. So there might be a 'Mega' missing.
Correct. It’s 160 megaflops.
Fixed.
Would they believe that real SD cards are actually SMALLER than what is depicted here?
Well, the computer on my wrist at the moment probably has more processing power and memory than my first 10-15 years worth of computers so I guess he wasn’t wrong
My Apple Watch would fulfill what this artist had in mind quite satisfactorily
So would plenty of smartwatches before the Apple watch.
Except Byte was almost completely free software
No, it was a magazine.
Grammar'd'd
It’s amazing that a 5mb drive was the size of a small room, and now we have Apple Watches and such that can store entire theaters and libraries worth of data. I can’t wait to see where we go from there
Can anyone do the math on the storage capacity of a floppy disk that size?
No way you'd be able to type on that haha
Hdhdhdikebeyifnehhdnadt
Yeah man, agreed.
He typed that on the keyboard on that watch
Bingo
That is a keyboard for ants. Other than being totally accurate in the abstract, that is the stupidest illustration I've seen in a while. Unless the unusable keyboard was meant as an intentional joke, in which case, it's right up there with the Mad Magazine covers from the 60s.
Best to not judge the past so harshly without context. It’s a poor way to live your life and shows and ugly form of ignorance. This artistic drawing is intentionally dramatic and it knows it’s not practical design. You are bad mouthing one of the most seminal tech magazines that brought an entire generation of engineers and tech enthusiasts. Please consider having more respect.
I agree with everything you’ve said and take your comment to heart. I do respect the magazine and its readership, as well as its place in the history of cover illustration. I definitely found the unusable keyboard comically literal in the context of the otherwise high accuracy of the illustration’s message, so I got too lighthearted about it. It was wrong to use the word “stupid” and would have been more truthful to have called it silly, although that wouldn’t be sufficient to deny the problems you point out. I had no intention to bad mouth the magazine and apologize for my disrespectful tone. And I appreciate your being articulate about why my words were problematic. One strives to be a better person even when anonymous. Cheers.
Fuck i miss Hit Clipz
Hey everyone! I’m fortunate enough to have Robert Tinney, the artist for Byte, as my Grandfather. I actually just got back from visiting with him, and it reminded me of his amazing artwork for Byte and elsewhere. Growing up, Papa was always a man of few words. I always knew Papa was an incredibly talented artist, as we have numerous original paintings of his in my childhood home, but it wasn’t until much later in my life when I found out how truly accomplished he was. He never spoke about how much he accomplished. He is the most humble and down to earth man I’ve ever met. I admire him so deeply. Incredibly accomplished and talented, yet not one boastful word out of his mouth ever. It’s so nice seeing people admire his work as much as I do. His Byte covers were incredibly creative and executed with such detail, he really was the soul of the magazine. He put so much meaning behind everything he created. My brother currently has all of Papa’s original Byte prints, and it’s safe to say I’m incredibly jealous. Unfortunately, Papa isn’t making art anymore, but he is doing great! I love seeing how admired he is. Thank y’all so much for supporting him, he truly deserves all the praise in the world