Computing in the year 2034
Are 250-gigabit networking and a 3 petahertz PC in your future? CNET News.com explores the Web.
Computing in the year 2034
HP researchers explore virtual alternatives to offsite meetings
Intel uses RFID to monitor elderly activities and wirelessly report to caregivers and loved ones
Futurist Jakob Nielsen asserts that home computers will have microprocessors running at 3 petahertz (300,000 gigahertz) that have a petabyte's worth of memory, a billion gigabytes of storage and a 250-gigabit broadband connection.
Such machines would likely surpass the capabilities of NEC's Earth Simulator. Sensor networks, robots and biological chips would enable us to leave network management, health care and many household tasks to machines. Every moment of your life would be preserved on video.
History says it will be true. Today's PDAs (personal digital assistants) make early supercomputers look like stone knives and bear skins. People adapt, too. Fifteen years ago, e-mail wasn't indispensable: It was nearly nonexistent. Servers you wear on your belt are coming soon.
Still, predictions don't always come true. In the same paper that outlined Moore's Law, Intel's Gordon Moore predicted that silicon wafers would measure 57 inches in diameter by now. Actually, they measure 12 inches. Memory chips made of polymers, a lab experiment now, were supposed to become standard in the 1970s. Power consumption, cost and the physics could hamper progress. Moore's Law is expected to run out of steam by 2021. And who wants his life captured on video, anyway?
What do you think computing will look like in 30 years? And, if you were working in the industry decades ago, did you think we would get this far?
--June 8, 2004
Editors' picks
Tomorrow's hot technologies
- Invasion of the robots CNET
News.com Robots have been discussed for years, but the technology has improved, and the cost is dropping.
- Start-up makes quantum leap into cryptography CNET News.com Some believe that perfect encryption through light will be here soon. Others say the idea is tough to implement
- Search engines try to find their sound CNET News.com Searching on sound and pictures is the next frontier.
- Old-school theory is a new force CNET News.com Probability is now behind everything from Web searches to spam.
- Conference mulls Web as personal memory store CNET News.com Everything you do will be on the Web--even that Jolly Rancher bar you stole as a kid.
- Intel, universities create world network CNET News.com By taking out latency, India and even Mars might seem as if they are next-door.
- Nanotech memory chips might soon be reality The New York
Times Then again, production costs make it risky. (login required)
Is the end near?
- Intel scientists find wall for Moore's Law CNET News.com Theorists say molecular physics will catch up with technology's mantra in two decades, but there are likely ways around the problem.
- Silicon Genesis Stanford University Stanford recorded interviews with many technology industry founders.
- HP moltronics research helps energize start-ups Small
Times Manipulating molecules could be the chief business of manufacturers in the future.
- The fantasy and reality of 2004 Wired News Some technology industry New Year's wishes are coming true.
- The end of microarchitecture EE Times Modifying existing technololgies, rather than inventing something new, will be the key to success in the future, microprocessor analyst Linley Gwennap says.
Going to extremes?
- Earth Simulator Center JAMSTEC A three-story building in Japan houses a computer that can simulate global climate changes. Will it be in your pocket in 30 years?
- The How Much Information? project Regents of the University
of California Researchers at the University of California at Berkeley have set out to determine how much information the world produces. The answer: 37,000 Libraries of Congress are created a year.
- Data faster than a speeding bullet Wired News CERN and the California Institute of Technology set the land speed record for data, shuttling it at 20,000 times the rate of typical broadband.
- Smart Dust kicks up a storm Fortune Some networked nodes are cheap enough to be painted on buildings, but who wants it? (subscription required)
Computing in the year 2034
HP researchers explore virtual alternatives to offsite meetings
Intel uses RFID to monitor elderly activities and wirelessly report to caregivers and loved ones
Futurist Jakob Nielsen asserts that home computers will have microprocessors running at 3 petahertz (300,000 gigahertz) that have a petabyte's worth of memory, a billion gigabytes of storage and a 250-gigabit broadband connection.
Such machines would likely surpass the capabilities of NEC's Earth Simulator. Sensor networks, robots and biological chips would enable us to leave network management, health care and many household tasks to machines. Every moment of your life would be preserved on video.
History says it will be true. Today's PDAs (personal digital assistants) make early supercomputers look like stone knives and bear skins. People adapt, too. Fifteen years ago, e-mail wasn't indispensable: It was nearly nonexistent. Servers you wear on your belt are coming soon.
Still, predictions don't always come true. In the same paper that outlined Moore's Law, Intel's Gordon Moore predicted that silicon wafers would measure 57 inches in diameter by now. Actually, they measure 12 inches. Memory chips made of polymers, a lab experiment now, were supposed to become standard in the 1970s. Power consumption, cost and the physics could hamper progress. Moore's Law is expected to run out of steam by 2021. And who wants his life captured on video, anyway?
What do you think computing will look like in 30 years? And, if you were working in the industry decades ago, did you think we would get this far?
--June 8, 2004
Editors' picks
Tomorrow's hot technologies
- Invasion of the robots CNET
News.com Robots have been discussed for years, but the technology has improved, and the cost is dropping.
- Start-up makes quantum leap into cryptography CNET News.com Some believe that perfect encryption through light will be here soon. Others say the idea is tough to implement
- Search engines try to find their sound CNET News.com Searching on sound and pictures is the next frontier.
- Old-school theory is a new force CNET News.com Probability is now behind everything from Web searches to spam.
- Conference mulls Web as personal memory store CNET News.com Everything you do will be on the Web--even that Jolly Rancher bar you stole as a kid.
- Intel, universities create world network CNET News.com By taking out latency, India and even Mars might seem as if they are next-door.
- Nanotech memory chips might soon be reality The New York
Times Then again, production costs make it risky. (login required)
Is the end near?
- Intel scientists find wall for Moore's Law CNET News.com Theorists say molecular physics will catch up with technology's mantra in two decades, but there are likely ways around the problem.
- Silicon Genesis Stanford University Stanford recorded interviews with many technology industry founders.
- HP moltronics research helps energize start-ups Small
Times Manipulating molecules could be the chief business of manufacturers in the future.
- The fantasy and reality of 2004 Wired News Some technology industry New Year's wishes are coming true.
- The end of microarchitecture EE Times Modifying existing technololgies, rather than inventing something new, will be the key to success in the future, microprocessor analyst Linley Gwennap says.
Going to extremes?
- Earth Simulator Center JAMSTEC A three-story building in Japan houses a computer that can simulate global climate changes. Will it be in your pocket in 30 years?
- The How Much Information? project Regents of the University
of California Researchers at the University of California at Berkeley have set out to determine how much information the world produces. The answer: 37,000 Libraries of Congress are created a year.
- Data faster than a speeding bullet Wired News CERN and the California Institute of Technology set the land speed record for data, shuttling it at 20,000 times the rate of typical broadband.
- Smart Dust kicks up a storm Fortune Some networked nodes are cheap enough to be painted on buildings, but who wants it? (subscription required)