Anybody else hope that the future of computing isn't necessarily the fastest computers, but the quietest?
812712
I would like a combination of the 2 with some more ram\n\n(i heard somewhere they will use mirrors to send the info instead of wires so they can send info at the speed of light. and it will be a lot more quiter)
356325
megahertz and gigahertz. More computer space available for storage.
257307
I just got this computer 3mos. ago.After swearing for 15yrs.,that I would never get one.I don't know about the world for sure if it is better,I think the computer really has made our lives more complicated.\n\nBUT I just might be old fashioned.
58333
No, he is talking about how the raw processing power has typically doubled within 16 to 18 months.  It pretty much already has.  They have reached the limit as far as pushing the GHz limit.  Processors top out at 3.8GHz or 4GHz but with water cooling and overclocking it is possible to get them to 6GHz+ but that pretty much voids the warranty and should not be attempted unless you know what you are doing.\n\nNow they are finding more efficient ways of pushing data through the processor, better architectures, more efficient data paths, higher cache memory directly on the chip and so on.  Soon that limit too will be reached and they will have to find entirely new technologies to produce processors.  Some say optical processors, or something to replace silicon chips is making them with carbon nano-tubes.  Neural net processors are also being tested (one was taught to fly a plane - virtually).  None of these technologies will reach the mass market no sooner than 10 years but probably more like 15.
130146
Currently not possible. Scillicon is not the most efficient but its abundance on earth is amazingly practicle. They've found ways to use nickle for example that can be 1000 times faster, but they'd have to reconstruct all the mechanism of the computer. \n\nnewscientist.com search quantum computer\n\nhttp://www.google.com/search?q=site:newscientist.com+quantum+computer
61556
Nope, I think in a few years the world will be run by them. Soon when you go to Burger King there will be no people behind the counter, it will all be computers, Think of it this way though all of your information is stored on computers, what happens if one day they just all die. Then we all would be in big trouble! So maybe we use the computer too much!!
26127
Probably for the typical user. Now, for geeks like me that would be awesomely fast. Mine peaks at 1MB/sec, but it's usually about 500kb/sec
789150
well kind of....\nit depends on who u talk to. \nand if your gonna be in the towns, its better to have a fast computer
759198
very bright future next to software
196663
In The BeginningIt was 1991, and the ruthless agonies of the cold war was gradually coming to an end. There was an air of peace and tranquility that prevailed in the horizon. In the field of computing, a great future seemed to be in the offing, as powerful hardware pushed the limits of the computers beyond what anyone expected. \nBut still, something was missing. \nAnd it was the none other than the Operating Systems, where a great void seemed to have appeared. \nFor one thing, DOS was still reigning supreme in its vast empire of personal computers. Bought by Bill Gates from a Seattle hacker for $50,000, the bare bones operating system had sneaked into every corner of the world by virtue of a clever marketing strategy. PC users had no other choice. Apple Macs were better, but with astronomical prices that nobody could afford, they remained a horizon away from the eager millions. \nThe other dedicated camp of computing was the Unix world. But Unix itself was far more expensive. In quest of big money, the Unix vendors priced it high enough to ensure small PC users stayed away from it. The source code of Unix, once taught in universities courtesy of Bell Labs, was now cautiously guarded and not published publicly. To add to the frustration of PC users worldwide, the big players in the software market failed to provide an efficient solution to this problem. .....\n\nhttp://linux.co.uk/Pages/aboutlinux\n\n\nLooking into the future of Linux\n\nby Tom Adelstein\n\n\nAdvances in desktop Linux are developing along two trend lines -- one for adoption and the other for innovation. The rate of adoption for Linux shows steady growth at a constant rate. However, technological advances can have an unpredictable impact on adoption -- and cause exponential growth.\n\nAnalysts agree on the current rate of adoption within the enterprise and among consumers and predict a minor dent in market share. Some analysts forecast that now that Linux has surpassed Apple's market share, it will take a six percent share over the next two years. Given conventional wisdom, those predictions seem reasonable\n\nThe disruptive nature of technological innovation throws these estimates out the window. While analysts can reliably make predictions from trade shows and vendor presentations, they are merely reporting proprietary trends in a closed environment. Taking into account open development projects bourne out of IBM, HP, Sun and the community, the world of open source quickly can take on a different hue.\n\nAmong the many innovations currently evolving in the GNU/Linux space, significant advances in interoperability among platforms such a single logon to Active Directory and even applications as mail and calendaring applications such as Lotus Notes and Microsoft Exchange interoperate with Linux. File managers can now visually detect Windows and UNIX hosts on a network. Device management to enhance hardware driver support, too, allows Linux to become a more supportive hardware platform than rivals.\n\nAnother key area of advancement in open source is visual. As digital convergence comes to fruition, the move toward an open environment for entertainment took a major leap when Sun Microsystems released Project Looking Glass under the GPL. The Santa Clara-based company's three-dimensional desktop environment has received great praise and attention for modernizing the look of the desktop. \n\nIn just a few short weeks, Project Looking Glass (lg3d) went from a fascinating trade show demo to something developers could bring to mass consumption. \n\nToday, the open source project runs on Fedora, Red Hat, SuSE and Sun's Java Desktop System. It works in 64 bit and 32 bit environments. Time to market is on a fast track as new developers have migrated to the project.\n\nOne of the major contributors and proponents of Project Looking Glass, Ricardo Wagemaker of GCCLinux.com, supports its use in manufacturing, medicine and biometrics, however his world revolves ar
135287
Computers are evolving extremely fast. If today this is the best processor, tommorow something new appears. And the reason for this is that computers make our life easier to handle. On the other hand I'm afraid that there will come the time when we will be ruled by their power, if this hasn't happened already. Look around you!
1173704
Processors:\n The current trends are leveling off due to restrictions, effectively, on size.  Processor speed is currently experiencing a barrier just over 4GHz due to the immense amount of heat released by a processor running at such high speeds.  Due to the metals used in processors, the power consumption levels in these processors are tremendous, and the fans required to cool them are enormous.  Adding a fan to the case and changing the shape to promote airflow or switching to liquid-cooled systems have been popular solutions to these problems, but a 4GHz processor in a mini-PC is just begging to overheat.  Therefore AMD and Intel chose the only obvious cost-effective solution:  the switch to dual cores.  While running two cores doesn't double the computing speed, it does significantly increase the computing power of the processor.  However, only select software will greatly benefit from this technology.  Software developed for single-core processors only sees a smaller boost in speed because it relies on the system to distribute work.  Another trick to increase speed is to increase the Level 2 cache size.  Pentium has upped their L2 cache sizes to 2MB while AMD still runs 512KB L2's.  An increase in level 1 cache memory would be more effective but much less cost-efficient.  Today's processors run at about 1.6 volts.  Technology will have to change to permit faster processors to fit in the same space.\n\nPermanent memory:\n It's tough to tell because money is being shifted toward new-technology reasearch as of late, as opposed to merely making the same old technology smaller.  On the subject of trends in hard drive space though, in 1994, 1 GB was a lot.  In 98, 6GB was a lot.  In 2002, 30GB was a lot.  In 2006, 300GB is a lot.  You do the math.  By 2010, assuming we're using the same technology, I'd say hard drives will come standard 4-6TB but that's pushing physical limits.\n\nTemporary memory:\n RAM is on the same exponential curve as permanent memory.  In 96, 32MB of RAM was a lot.  Now, 8 years later, computers are shipping out with 2GB standard.  By 2010, I'd say 40-50GB will not be unheard of.\n\nOh, you asked about next year, not 2010.  I'd say modest growth, with standard hard disks pushing 500GB but with a lot of new prototypes in development, and RAM pushing 4GB.  Processor clock speed is tough to guess, because it's hard to say what new technology will emerge, and if they will push clock speed.  However it's safe to say that the standard CPU will be predictably faster next year.
193127
Of course not.  There are far too many poor people, homeless people, elderly and people who live in jungles that do not have computers.\n\nCheck out this article from Intel.  They estimate only 10% of the world's population has a computer or access to one:\n\nhttp://www.intel.com/research/exploratory/papr/next10.htm
90351
Sad as it is this damn computer.
659989
I compute and I am mostly  human
747880
I bet it will be nanomachines.  Microscopic machines that work at the molecular level will be crucial in the biomedical fields and in new tech innovations that we use everyday, like today cell phones.  Did you ever see that add for microsoft where it was in the near future and this girl was jogging and she got a video conference call from her dad over her sunglasses? He brought up schematics of art works he was thinking of buying and talking to her while she was jogging... well thats all going to be possible with molecular computers.  Unfortunately though, so will other really bad things, we'll just have to see how it goes.
955655
How about creating a grid computing system which utilises idle cpu time from PCs on your network to process a centrally managed queue of CPU intensive tasks.... Say controlled from a server utilizing JavaSpaces.