Head to head

Compare any two computers

Pick two machines from 50 years of computing, or pit one against the phone in your pocket. Every number comes from the atlas catalogue.

Commodore · 1987

Amiga 500

The bedroom machine of the late 1980s: Lemmings, Sensible Soccer and the demo scene.

CPUMotorola 68000 @ 7.09 MHz
Memory512 KB
Storage3.5" floppy
Launch price$699 ≈ $1,930 today
In the atlasBe the first to add it
VS

Atari · 1985

Atari 520ST

Built-in MIDI ports made the ST a fixture of music studios.

CPUMotorola 68000 @ 8 MHz
Memory512 KB
Storage3.5" floppy
Launch price$799 ≈ $2,330 today
In the atlasBe the first to add it

The verdict

The Amiga 500 has 1.0× the memory of the Atari 520ST.

They are 2 years apart. Doubling every two years (Moore's law) would predict about 2.0×; the memory actually grew slower than that. Across the whole catalogue memory doubled every 1.9 years.

In today's money the Atari 520ST cost $400 more at launch.

Memory512 KB vs 512 KB
Clock speed7.09 MHz vs 8 MHz
Launch price, today's dollars$1,930 vs $2,330

Bars use a logarithmic scale so both machines stay visible.

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