On Thursday 27 Oct 2011 11:27:39 PM BGB wrote: > most likely, processing power will stop increasing (WRT density and/or > watts) once the respective physical limits are met (basically, it would > no longer be possible to get more processing power in the same space or > using less power within the confines of the laws of physics). The adoption of computing machines at large is driven primarily by three needs - power (portable), space/weight and speed. The last two are now solvable in the large but the third one is still stuck in the "dark ages". I recollect a joke by Dr An Wang (founder of Wang Labs) in keynote during the 80s that goes something like this:
A man struggled to lug two heavy suitcases into a bogie in a train that was just about to depart. A fellow passenger helped him in and they start a conversation. The man turns out to be a salesman from a company that made portable computers. He showed one that fit in a pocket to his fellow passenger. "It does everything that a mainframe does and more and it costs only $100". "Amazing!" exclaimed the passenger as he held the marvel in his hands, "Where can I get one?". "You can have this piece," said the gracious gent, "as thank you gift for helping me." "Thank you very much." the passenger was thrilled beyond words as he gingerly explored the new gadget. Soon, the train reached the next station and the salesman stepped out. As the train departed, the passenger yelled at him. "Hey! you forgot your suitcases!". "Not really!" the gent shouted back. "Those are the batteries for your computer". ;-) .. Subbu _______________________________________________ fonc mailing list [email protected] http://vpri.org/mailman/listinfo/fonc
