 12-21-2003, 02:25 PM | #1 |
| Administrator Join Date: Dec 2003 Posts: 134 | The Quest for the Dream Machine
Quote: If you were shrewd enough to invest $15,000 in Microsoft ten years ago you’d be a millionaire by now. The engine of growth that has driven the computer industry, and looks set to make Bill Gates the world’s first trillionaire, is no lucky fluke. Underpinning it have been sweeping advances in fundamental electronics. The first computers used bulky vacuum tubes and needed entire buildings to house them. Then in the 1960’s along came the transistor, which in turn gave way to the incredible shrinking microchip. But this is not the end of the story. Yet more exotic technologies are in the pipeline, and they promise to have as great an impact on the information industry as did the invention of the original computer.
The commercial success of computers stems from the fact that with each technological leap, the processing power of computers has soared and the costs have plummeted, allowing manufacturers to penetrate new markets and hugely expand production. The inexorable rise of the computer’s potency is expressed in a rough and ready rule known as Moore’s Law, after Gordon Moore, the co-founder of Intel. According to this dictum, the processing power of computers doubles every 18 months. Bt how long can it go on? | Read more... http://physicspost.com/articles.php?articleId=29 |
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