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Further reading □ Overview □ Preface □ Contents □ 1. Introduction □ 2. ToR and members □ 3. Conclusions □ 4. Working party procedure □ 5. Assessment of community needs □ 6. Solutions to user needs □ 7. Systems specification □ 8. Management □ A1. Communications □ A2. Fall in computer costs □ A3. Subjects covered □ Glossary
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Further reading ⇓

□ Overview
□ Preface
□ Contents
□ 1. Introduction
□ 2. ToR and members
□ 3. Conclusions
□ 4. Working party procedure
□ 5. Assessment of community needs
□ 6. Solutions to user needs
□ 7. Systems specification
□ 8. Management
□ A1. Communications
□ A2. Fall in computer costs
□ A3. Subjects covered
□ Glossary

APPENDIX 2. FALL IN COMPUTER COSTS

The overwhelming view is that a rapid reduction in the price of computing equipment has taken place in the last five years and will continue for the next five years. By way of illustration Table 1 gives some comparative costs for 1970 and 1975 with projections for 1980. With the exception of large processors, a general rule of a cost improvement of a factor 10 in five years seems appropriate.

TABLE 1: Comparative Costs of Computer Hardware
1970 1975 1980
Small processor per Atlas power (198000)a (110000) 10000b 1000
Large processor per Atlas power 102000c (60000) 90000d ?
Main memory/Mbyte 720000 (400000) 70000 2000e
File store/Mbyte small system 3600f (2000) 800g 200
File storage/Mbyte large system 670h (370) 50i 10

All prices in pounds at 1975 prices.

1970 prices have been scaled by 1.8 for inflation.

1970 prices in brackets are actual prices.

  1. PDP KA10 taken as 0.7 Atlas power
  2. GEC 4080
  3. IBM 360/195 taken as 30 Atlas power, price scaled by 1.7 as price is for 1971
  4. Second-hand 360/195
  5. See Proceedings of IEEE, August 1975. Special issue on large capacity storage systems
  6. 3.5 Mbyte disk with controller for DDP516
  7. 10 Mbyte disk with controller for GEC 4080
  8. IBM 2314, 240 Mbyte on 8 drives with controller
  9. Memorex disks, 1600 Mbyte on 8 drives with controller.
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