Zeus Tech Note
Hardware Evolution

Copyright © 1996-1997. Zeus Productions. All Rights Reserved.
Written by Bruce Epstein

You should be able to quickly pick out the appropriate hardware to support from the following list, which should get you in the evolutionary swing:

CPUs:

Mac:
68000 (original Mac) (1985)
68020 (Mac II) (1988)
68030 (Quadra) (1990)
68040 Quadra AV (1992)
601 (first PowerPCs) (1993)
604 (Newer PowerPCs) and higher
PC:
8088/8086 (PC/XT) (1981)
80286 (AT) (1983)
80386 (1987)
80486 (1990)
Pentium (194)
Pentium II and higher (1996)

CD-ROM drives:

Single-Speed (1X) (1990)

Double-Speed (2X) (1992)

Quad Speed (4X) (1994)

6X (1995)
8X (1996)
16X (1997)
20X (1997)
24X and higher

Modems:

300 bps (1981)

1200 bps (1985)

2400 bps (1988)

9600 bps (1991)

14.4 Kbps (1994)

28.8 Kbps (1995)

33.6 Kbps (1996)

57 Kbps (1997)

128 Kbps/ISDN and higher

RAM:

256 K (1981)
512 K (1983)
640 K (1985)
1 MB (1988)
2 MB (1990)
4 MB (1992)
8 MB (1994)
16 MB (1995)
24 MB (1996)
32 MB (1997)
48 MB and higher (1998)

Monitors:

512x384 monochrome (CGA) (1981)
512x384 x 16 color (EGA) (1985)
640 x 480 x 16 color (VGA) (1987)
640 x 480 x millions of colors and higher (SVGA). (1989)

Sound:

none/simple speaker (beeps)

8-bit/11 kHz monaural

16-bit/22 kHz stereo

16-bit/44 kHz stereo

3D surround sound

The MPC Level 1 Spec can be summarized as follows:

CPU: 386SX (or higher)
RAM: Minimum 2 MB
Magnetic Storage: 3.5" floppy, and 30 MB hard drive.
CD-ROM drive: Single-speed (150 k/sec)
Sound Card: 8-bit (16-bit recommended). 22.050 and 11.025 kHz required; 44.1 kHz desirable; Optional stereo.
Video: VGA adapter, and a VGA monitor (640 x480 x16 colors) required. VGA+ (640x480 x 256 colors) recommended
Input Devices: Standard 101 key IBM-style keyboard, Two-button mouse
Modem: 9600 baud
Software: Windows 3.0 plus Multimedia Extensions or Windows 3.1

The MPC Level 2 (MPC2) Spec can be summarized as follows:

CPU: 25 Mhz 486SX (or higher)
RAM: 4 MB (8 MB recommended)
Magnetic Storage: 3.5" floppy, and 160 MB hard drive.
CD-ROM drive: Double-speed (300 k/sec)
Sound Card: 16-bit, 44.1 kHz stereo sound
Video: Super VGA (640 x 480 x 65,536 colors).
Digital Video - recommended that it support delivery of digital video with 320 x 240 resolution at 15 frames/second and 256 colors.
Input Devices: Standard 101 key IBM-style keyboard, Two-button mouse
Modem: 9600 baud
Software: Windows 3.0 plus Multimedia Extensions or Windows 3.1

Life:

Republican

Democrat

ameba

worm

fish

mammal
Multimedia Geek

Spock

Hal

Data

You'll see similar trends in hard drive capacity/speed, printer resolution/speed, and any other hardware component you can name.

Zeus Tech Note Hardware Evolution

Zeus Tech Note
Hardware Evolution