Year: 1997
Type: article
Abstract: In the near future, one can expect integration of audio, video and conferencing capabilities with the World-Wide Web. And in the home, PC usage hours will exceed TV viewing hours by the end of the decade. For instance, people will be able to view, print and exchange family photos from their digital cameras, using an intuitive photoshop program to remove red-eye, lighten dark backgrounds, and incorporate photos into family newsletters and Web pages. Software and hardware improvements are converging to bring users many more useful and interesting applications. The complexity of the microprocessor as measured by the number of transistors on a chip has been doubling every 18 months. This exponential growth has helped increase performance and shrink the cost of computing. Before the semiconductor industry reaches any fundamental limits, innovations in technology should be able to make economical processors with well over a billion transistors performing at speeds far above today's. Another thousandfold increase in computing power seems to be a conservative estimate
Source: Communications of the ACM
Author: Wm. A. Wulf
Institution: University of Virginia
Language: English
Subfield: General Social Sciences
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W1998837334