How Does the Raspberry Pi Compare to Computers of the Past?

Published by DevicePlus Editorial Team at February 21, 2020

Birth of Computers: The 1946 ENIAC

Developed in the aftermath of the Second World War, the ENIAC represented a significant advance. Prior devices were designed for a single purpose, such as breaking codes. In contrast, ENIAC was built to process a variety of instructions.

Compared to Raspberry Pi, ENIAC is a giant. The ENIAC device took up 1800 square feet – that’s larger than many apartments! The Raspberry Pi can fit in a pocket. In terms of hardware capabilities, here are some points of comparison:

Cost Comparison. In some ways, comparing cost is not fair because the ENIAC was never mass-produced. The ENIAC is approximately 150,000 times more expensive than the Pi 4.
Weight: ENIAC is 532,476 times heavier than the Raspberry Pi 4. While the Pi 4 is a single board device, the ENIAC required 6,000 switches and 1500 relays to operate.
Processing Speed. The Raspberry Pi’s processing speed is approximately 150,000 times faster than ENIAC’s.

Comparing the first computer to a 2012 machine is not exactly a fair competition. The comparison in capabilities is a bit more balanced when we look at the world’s first supercomputer.

The First Supercomputer: The 1964 CDC 6600

Unlike the ENIAC, the CDC 6600 was produced for a small market of one hundred customers. The device’s programming interface had two options: paper punch cards and magnetic tape. From a hardware perspective, the machine had 400,000 transistors (a piece of hardware unavailable in ENIAC). Now let’s consider how this supercomputer, the champion of 1960s technology, compares to the Raspberry Pi 4.

Wiring. The supercomputer relies upon 100 miles of wiring. In contrast, the Pi 4 has a tiny fraction of wiring as a single board device.
Comparing The Cost. The Raspberry Pi 4 is mass-produced and easy to afford for most people interested in electronics. However, the CDC supercomputer is a different story entirely! It is 1.7 million times more expensive. That high cost is one of the reasons why there were only 100 units bought – only a small number of organizations could afford this device.
Processing Speed. The supercomputer operates at approximately 3% of the Raspberry Pi 4.

So far, we have compared the Pi 4 to industrial-scale computers. In the 1970s, computers for consumers began to become available.

The Personal Computer Arrives: The 1977 Commodore PET

The Commodore is one of the best-loved computers, along with the Apple II of the late twentieth century. Unlike prior computers we have looked at, the Commodore was designed for consumers. It could fit into a consumer’s home, and it had a relatively affordable price. From a hardware perspective, here are a few points of comparison between the Pi 4 and the Commodore.

Comparing The Cost. This 1977 computer is approximately 96 times more expensive than the Pi 4. The original list price for the Commodore was $795 — that’s equivalent to about 6% of the median U.S. income that year (or three weeks of income). In contrast, you could buy a Raspberry Pi 4 today with a day’s income, in most cases.
Processing Speed. Compared to the Pi 4, the Commodore’s processing speed is 0.07% as fast.
Weight Comparison. The Commodore is approximately 247 times heavier than the Pi 4.

Input and output capabilities for the Commodore brought new capabilities to computing users. Instead of relying on delicate paper punch cards, the Commodore included a disk drive and keyboard.

User-Friendly Computing: The 1977 Apple II

While the Commodore device was groundbreaking as a product aimed at consumers, it was still challenging to use. From an ease of use perspective, Apple II was a leap forward. Let’s compare and contrast it to the Raspberry Pi 4.

Weight. Since the Apple II includes a monitor, it will come as no surprise that it is over 100 times heavier than the Pi 4.
Cost. Similar to the weight difference, the Apple II cost more than 100 times the Pi 4.
Memory. The Apple II offers 4-64 KB of memory, which is a fraction of the 1 GB (and higher) that comes with the Pi 4.
Display. The Apple II introduced color graphics. However, the computer delivered this capability in an unusual way. The Apple II did not have a dedicated video chip. Today, chip LEDs provide much more robust color displays.

Now let’s turn to the mobile device revolution, which changed significantly in 2007 when Apple unveiled a new device.

The Revolutionary Smartphone: The 2007 iPhone

Cell phones had already been around for decades before the iPhone was released. The Apple iPhone represented a significant leap forward in capabilities. Let’s contrast the original iPhone’s hardware with the Raspberry Pi 4, which was released in 2012.

Processing Speed. The original iPhone is 27% as fast as the Pi 4. They are released less than ten years apart, and yet there is a significant performance difference.
Memory Differences. The entry-level original iPhone had 4 GB of memory. That’s much more than the Pi 4 offers.
Cost. While the iPhone does have notable hardware capabilities such as a touchscreen and GPS, it is also much more costly than the Pi 4.

What Will You Do With The Raspberry Pi?

The Pi 4 is a special computer. It is cheaper and much lighter weight than historical computers. It may not come with a keyboard and a display. However, you can still do amazing things with this lightweight computer. Here at Device Plus, we introduce a lot of DIY-projects you can build using Raspberry Pi. To get you started on the Pi 4, check out our post for a beginner-friendly project like these;