Computing · 1918
Flip-flop circuit
Two tubes that remember one bit.
William Eccles and F. W. Jordan built a bistable circuit that held one of two states until triggered. The flip-flop became the basic storage and counting element of electronic computers.
What it built on 1
What it led to 2
Related measurements
The dashed line marks when it first worked.
Computation per constant dollar, 1850-2006 Latest: 7.3B million units of computer power per 2006 $ (2003) Source: Nordhaus 2007, Two Centuries of Productivity Growth in Computing, J. Econ. Hist. 67(1), Table 6
Fastest computer in the world Latest: 2.2×10¹⁸ operations per second (2026) Source: Wikipedia: List of fastest computers; Wikipedia: History of supercomputing