The computers of the future are expected to be smaller, faster and smarter. For the
past 20 years, CPU performance has doubled about every 18 months. The PowerPC
will stay close to this pace for the next 10 years--a nearly 100-fold improvement in that
time. The storage capacities of hard drives will continue to expand, they are currently
growing at a rate of about 60 percent per year. Today, Intel's Pentium II has 7.5 million
transistors. If the trend continues, Intel processors should contain 50 million to 100 million
transistors in the first decade of the next century. In 5 years, computers will have 16 times
the memory capacity they do now. "One big challenge is the time for the processor to acc-
ess the memory. [One solution is that] the processor might be on the same chip as memo-
ry. Every time you buy memory, you get a processor."
Actual voice input will become a reality, but it may not be widely employed in offices
because of privacy and environmental issues. According to Gates. He predicts that within
ten years, "every computer will have speech and linguistics built into it. Instead of typing
or clicking, you'll tell your PC to launch this application or print that document. At the off-
ice, your e-mail message is just as likely to be a video clip. At home it probably means that
your PC takes control of the lights, temperature, and appliances. When you have a prob-
lem, software will look for conflicts, make sure drivers are up to date, when a fix is neces-
sary, ask if you want to go online and get a patch. Later on, it will search for the medicine
it needs with no intervention from you. Even later, software will watch what you are doing
and step in when you're having trouble. In ten years there will be better input systems;
handwriting, speech, visual recognition. As much as 90 percen
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