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.

Apple · 1977

Apple II

VisiCalc, the first spreadsheet, turned it into a business machine in 1979.

CPUMOS 6502 @ 1 MHz
Memory4 KB
StorageCassette, later 5.25" floppy
Launch price$1,298 ≈ $6,720 today
In the atlasBe the first to add it
VS

Apple · 2020

Apple MacBook Air (M1, 2020)

No fan at all, and faster than most laptops of its day.

CPUApple M1 (8 cores) @ 3.2 GHz
Memory8 GB
Storage256 GB SSD
Launch price$999 ≈ $1,210 today
In the atlasBe the first to add it

The verdict

The Apple MacBook Air (M1, 2020) has 2.1 million× the memory of the Apple II and a clock 3,200× faster.

They are 43 years apart. Doubling every two years (Moore's law) would predict about 3 million×; the memory actually grew slower than that. Across the whole catalogue memory doubled every 1.9 years.

In today's money the Apple II cost $5,510 more at launch.

Memory4 KB vs 8 GB
Clock speed1 MHz vs 3.2 GHz
Launch price, today's dollars$6,720 vs $1,210

Bars use a logarithmic scale so both machines stay visible.

Popular match-ups

Commodore 64 vs Sinclair ZX Spectrum 48KApple II vs Apple MacBook Air (M1, 2020)Amiga 500 vs Atari 520STIBM PC (5150) vs A PC or laptop with Windows 11Apple iMac G3 vs Apple MacBook Air (M1, 2020)BBC Micro Model B vs Raspberry Pi (Model B)Altair 8800 vs PhoneAsus Eee PC 701 vs A school Chromebook