The Triviality of Computers - How Many do You Own?

[russ_watters]

TL;DR Summary

How many computers do you own?

This is an offshoot of the Boeing MCAS thread where we were discussing flight control computer sophistication. To ironically quote Apollo 13; today we have "computers that can fit into a single room and hold millions* of pieces of information..." That was about 1968. But *today* we consider processing power to be an utter triviality.

So trivial that I bet most people would have some difficulty counting all the computers they own. So let's try it (limit it to things that could likely run an Apollo spacecraft )...

2 laptops, 1 Surface and 2 desktops. Those are the obvious ones.

One smart phone (and one I don't use).

4 smart TVs or Blu-ray players. One chromecast.

Two routers and an access point.

Two printers.

My car

Smart watch

Does my Harmony remote count? I don't know. Maybe

My treadmill has a USB port, so...probably?

2 cameras.

Bose headphones I would assume.

My energy monitor? Maybe?

So my count is on the order of 25. I'm probably missing some. Need to think about it some more...

*I'm not sure that was even true; it was probably dozens or hundreds.

 

[jedishrfu]

Do sliderules, addiators and a smart dog count?

Ill leave our turtle off the list for now.

 

[essenmein]

Depending on how old your car is, there are easily hundreds of computers in a car, in modern vehicles anything that is connected to the CAN (or LIN, FlexRay etc) bus has a computer. So for example each window that rolls down when you push a button has a controller that is talked to by generally LIN, so if your car has 4 roll down windows, its got 4 "computers" right there, plus of course the computer that read the button push and figured out which window to activate.

 

[anorlunda]

16

That makes me a Luddite by comparison.

Now if you added "or have ever owned", I could have counted another 20 or so.

 

[hutchphd]

Do we count the microwave? Instapot? Digital O'scope? For us oldsters: glucometer? BP monitor? Piano/synthesizer? Wired voip phone? Rroomba? Smartbulb?
This is making my head hurt! It is amazing.

Daddy, what's a computer?

 

[russ_watters]

Do sliderules, addiators and a smart dog count?

Ill leave our turtle off the list for now.

Depending on how old your car is, there are easily hundreds of computers in a car, in modern vehicles anything that is connected to the CAN (or LIN, FlexRay etc) bus has a computer. So for example each window that rolls down when you push a button has a controller that is talked to by generally LIN, so if your car has 4 roll down windows, its got 4 "computers" right there, plus of course the computer that read the button push and figured out which window to activate.

Well I did specify a processing capability of Apollo or greater. A single PID controller or smart dog would not suffice.

That said, I'm not totally clear just how powerful the special purpose controllers on a car actually are -- and after getting a remote starter put on my car, I'm starting to see there are a lot more than I expected.

As far as I know, all the ones I mentioned are general purpose, programmable computers with (at least) megabytes of memory that can execute millions of operations per second.

The LEM computer ran at 2MHZ and had 40KB of total memory.

 

[essenmein]

Yeah was trying to see if there are any computing power comparisons. They mostly seem to go by MHz, which is not particularly accurate. But a 2MHZ 16bit mpu with 40kb of flash is probably about what you'd see as a baseline controller that needs to talk on LIN/CAN, esp if there is some motor driving or other housekeeping happening. The micros we use on some of our bigger motor controllers are dual or tri core 200MHz cpus...

 

[essenmein]

As to the original question:
4 desk top machines, 1 laptop, 1 tablet, 2 phones, PS4. Most everything else we have is distinctly "dumb" on purpose.

 

[glappkaeft]

To cite Danny Hills more than 20 years ago

"I went to my first computer conference at the New York Hilton about 20 years ago. When somebody there predicted the market for microprocessors would eventually be in the millions, someone else said, 'Where are they all going to go? It's not like you need a computer in every doorknob!'"

"Years later, I went back to the same hotel. I noticed the room keys had been replaced by electronic cards you slide into slots in the doors."

"There was a computer in every doorknob."

 

[Wrichik Basu]

One laptop, one desktop, three working smartphones. One digital AC/DC clamp multimeter, one Amazon kindle. Three Panasonic digital cameras. One car. One digital BP monitor; if that counts, it would amount to 12.

 

[anorlunda]

I would guess that it does not pay to match the power of the embedded chip too closely to the demands of the application. If you have a 1 teaspoon project, but the cost of 1 liter chips is only $0.02, use it anyhow even if gross overkill. That would be doubly true if the 1 teaspoon CPU cost more because it was less popular.

Therefore, you may wind up with a smart light bulb with more than enough computer power to run an entire business. Who cares?

Who cares? Criminals care. The vulnerability of IOT devices has been mentioned before on PF, but that is not the topic of this thread.

 

[jedishrfu]

Yes, sometimes it's cheaper overall to standardize on a more functional CPU design than using the minimalist approach of discrete logic. You can then offer software updates to fix issues and add more function or enable function already present to existing devices which keeps customers interested in your products. Criminals really appreciate the opportunity to hack new stuff as @anorlunda suggested.

MS did something like that years ago with Windows NT Workstation and Windows NT Server. The difference was a single registry key, in other words the software was mostly the same but some function was disabled by key. The customer just had to buy a new license and magically they were upgraded with new capability and no need to reinstall an OS.

https://www.itprotoday.com/compute-...-windows-nt-workstation-and-windows-nt-server

 

[symbolipoint]

Smartphones are so poor at taking the roll of personal computer that (in my experience, which does not match everyone's experience), for me, they do not count. Two working computers at any time where MINE. Both being laptop computers.