Xah Lee, 2006-12
Since 1990, hard disk storage capacity doubles in about every 1 year, computing speed doubles by about every 2 years. What about internet speed?
Here's my internet connection speed history:
| 1991 | Modem 1200 (V.22) | 1.2 kbit/s | |
| 1997 | 56k modem | 56 kbit/s | |
| 1998 | Brainpower Innetix wireless | 800 kbit/s | |
| 1999 | Weborder alink.net ISDN | 280 kbit/s | |
| 2002 | Pacfic Bell adsl (Palo Alto apartment) | 880 kbit/s | 137 kbit/s upload |
| 2003 | Paul K's cable modem with 802.11b wireless | 800 kbit/s | 30.1KB/s upload. |
| 2003 | Palo Alto library, wireless | 980 kbit/s | 112 kbit/s upload. |
| 2006 | Mountain View, Danny's DSL | 980 kbit/s | |
| 2008 | Mountain View, Comcast Cable | 5288 kbit/s | (highest occured, after midnight) |
kbit/s = 10^3 bits per second. The figures above are not meant to be accurate. They are roughly the data rate as shown in web browser at time of testing. The are meant to give a rough practical figure.
As of 2009-09-28, using Camcast Cable, at speedtest.net, i get 8.41 Mb/s downstream and 4.64 Mb/s upstream, and ping 17 ms.
2009-11-07, 8.69 Mb/s downstream and 7.45 Mb/s upstream, and ping 22 ms.
Audio (MP3)
| 32 kbit/s | MW (AM) radio |
| 96 kbit/s | FM radio quality |
| 128-160 kbit/s | Lousy. Muddy bass, dulled cymbols. |
| 192 kbit/s | OK. Compatible with average headphone. |
| 224-320 kbit/s | Near CD Quality. Need hi-fi headphone to enjoy. |
Video (MPEG2)
Misc
Devices i had personal experienced since i started to use computer in 1991:
| MIDI | 0.0313 Mbit/s | 0.0039 MB/s |
| PC Floppy Disk Controller (1.44MB) | 0.5 Mbit/s | 0.062 MB/s |
| CD Controller (1x) | 1.2 Mbit/s | 0.15 MB/s |
| Bluetooth 1.1 | 1 Mbit/s | 125 kB/s |
| Bluetooth 2.0+EDR | 3 Mbit/s | 375 kB/s |
| DVD Controller (1x) | 11.1 Mbit/s | 1.32 MB/s |
| Ethernet (10base-X) | 10 Mbit/s | 1.25 MB/s |
| 802.11b DSSS 0.125 | 11.0 Mbit/s | 1.375 MB/s |
| 802.11g OFDM 0.125 | 54.0 Mbit/s | 6.75 MB/s |
| Fast Ethernet (100base-X) | 100 Mbit/s | 12.5 MB/s |
| USB Hi-Speed (USB 2.0) | 480 Mbit/s | 60 MB/s |
| PC133 SDRAM | 8.528 Gbit/s | 1.066 GB/s |
Reference: