To call the evolution of the computer meteoric seems like an understatement . ConsiderMoore ’s Law , an observation that Gordon Moore made back in 1965 . He noticed that the turn oftransistorsengineers could cram onto a silicon chip duplicate every year or so . That manic pace slowed over the years to a more or less more lowly 24 - calendar month cycle .
Awareness of the breakneck speed at which computer engineering develops has seeped into the public consciousness . We ’ve all see the jest about buying a computer at the storage only to find out it ’s obsolete by the time you get home . What will the future hold for computers ?
Assumingmicroprocessormanufacturers can proceed to live up to Moore ’s Law , the processing power of our computers should double every two years . That would think computers 100 years from now would be 1,125,899,906,842,624 times more herculean than the current models . That ’s hard to guess .
But even Gordon Moore would caution against bear Moore ’s Law will deem out that long . In 2005 , Moore said that as electronic transistor touch the atomic musical scale we may encounter fundamental barriers we ca n’t spoil [ source : Dubash ] . At that point , we wo n’t be able to cram more transistors in the same amount of infinite .
We may get around that barrier by build larger processor fleck with more electronic transistor . But transistors get heat , and a hot C.P.U. can cause a computer to shut out down . Computers with fast mainframe demand effective cooling systems to forefend overheat . The larger the central processor chip , the more heat the computer will return when working at full fastness .
Another tactic is to flip-flop to multi - core architecture . Amulti - core group processordedicates part of its processing might to each core group . They ’re good at handling calculations that can be broken down into smaller components ; however , they are n’t as good at handle tumid computational problems that ca n’t be break down .
succeeding computers may bank on a completely different theoretical account than traditional machines . What if we abandon the old transistor - based processor ?
Optics, Quantum Processing and DNA Computers
Fiber - optictechnology has already begin to revolutionize estimator . Fiber - oculus data line of credit carry information at incredible speeds and are n’t vulnerable to electromagnetic interference like classic cables . What if we were to construct a computer that uses brightness to transmit information instead of electrical energy ?
One benefit is that an opthalmic or photonic organisation would generate less heat than the traditional electronic transistor processor . The data point would transmit at a flying rate as well . But applied scientist have yet to develop a compendious optical electronic transistor that can be mass produce . Scientists at ETH Zurich were able to build an opticaltransistorjust one atom in size . But to make the system efficient , the scientists had to cool the molecule to minus 272 degrees Anders Celsius , or 1 degree Kelvin . That ’s just a piddling warmer than deep outer space [ source : Science Daily ] . That ’s not really hard-nosed for the ordinary data processor user .
Photonic transistors could become part of a quantum information processing system . Unlike traditional computers , which use binary digits or minute to do operations , quantum computersuse quantum bits or qubits . A bit is either a 0 or a 1 . remember of it like a switch that is either off or on . But a qubit can be both a 0 and a 1 ( or anything in between ) at the same sentence . The switch is both off and on and everything in between .
A work quantum computer should be able to lick swelled problems that can be split into smaller ones much quicker than a traditional computing machine . We call these problemsembarrassingly parallel problem . But quantum computers are , by their very nature , mentally ill . If the quantum province of the computer is confused , the machine could revert to the calculation great power of a traditional figurer . Like the optical vector create at ETH Zurich , quantum computing equipment are kept at just a few degrees above inviolable zero to preserve their quantum state .
Perhaps the time to come of information processing system lies inside of us . Teams of computer scientists are working to develop computers that use deoxyribonucleic acid to swear out selective information . This compounding of computer scientific discipline and biology could lead the way to the next generation of computers . A DNA computer might have several vantage over traditional machines . For exercise , DNA is a plentiful and cheap resource . If we observe a way to rule DNA as a data point processing puppet , it could revolutionize the data processor field .
Ubiquitous Computing
A popular theme in science fiction stories set in the future isubiquitous computer science . In this hereafter , computers have become so small and pervasive that they are in much everything . You might have computer detector in your storey that can monitor your physical health . computer in your car that can help you when you get to oeuvre . And computers much everywhere track your every move .
It ’s a sight of the future tense that is both elating and frightening . On the one hand , computer web would become so robust that we ’d always have a riotous , reliable connector to theInternet . You could communicate with anyone you choose no topic where you were with no worries about break in service . But on the other hand , it would also become possible for potbelly , government activity or other formation to gather information about you and keep tabs on you wherever you go .
We ’ve watch footstep toward ubiquitous calculation over the last ten . Municipal Wi - Fi labor and 4 G technologies like LTE and WiMAX have extended web calculate far beyond the universe of wired machines . you could purchase a smartphone and access petabytes of data on the World encompassing Web in a issue of minute . detector in traffic stoplight and biometric devices can find our presence . It may not be long before nearly everything we come into contact with has a computer or sensor inside it .
We may also see monolithic transformations in user port technology . Currently , most computers rely on forcible stimulation interface like a estimator mouse , keyboard , pass over pad or other control surface upon which we input commands . There are also computer curriculum that can recognize your voice or chase your eye drift to execute bid . Computer scientists and neurologists are working on various Einstein - computing machine interfaces that will allow for mass to falsify reckoner using only their opinion . Who knows ? The computers of the future may react seamlessly with our desires .
To extrapolate out to 100 years is difficult . Technological progress is n’t needs running or logarithmic . We may experience ten of advance follow by a period in which we make very little headway as we chance up against out of the blue barriers . On the other helping hand , according to some fantast , there may be no meaningful difference between computers and humans within 100 old age . In that world , we ’ll be transformed into a new mintage that can meliorate upon itself at a stride inconceivable to us in our current forms . Whatever the future may accommodate , it ’s a safe wager to assume the machines we rely upon will be very dissimilar from today ’s estimator .
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