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--------------------- - 1847 - Computer evolution, where will it lead?
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- I can say , I was there. There, with the birth of the computer age. I learned vacuum tubes for my electrical engineering degree from Tri-State College, Angola, Indiana (1962). But, when I came out of the service in 1968 I was 6 years behind. I began studying transistors while working at Hewlett-Packard in Palo Alto, California. They were still building vacuum tubes and I worked on Backward Wave Oscillators and Klystrons which were again vacuum tubes.
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- Next door there was Xerox PARC, a Palo Alto Research Center where Apple and others introduced the personal computer. HP even was building the printed circuit boards for Apple because Apple did not yet have that manufacturing capability. I actually bought the Apple II serial number 200. Soon the laser printer was introduced and Windows - graphic user interface.
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- This was 1968, in 1965 Gordon Moore, founder of Intel, said the computer power would double every 18 months because of integrated circuits etching smaller and smaller circuits. Today our cell phones have more computer power that all of NASA had back in 1969. And, NASA used that computer to put 2 astronauts on the Moon.
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- Sony Play Station costing $300 has more computer power than the military’s supercomputer of 1997 costing millions of dollars.
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- Exponential growth in computer power: Mother Nature uses the same exponential law in virus growth. A cold virus can grow from 1 virus to 10 billion viruses in just 5 generations.
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- In 1960s I took only one college course on solid state transistors that were just beginning to replace vacuum tubes. Mainframe computers using vacuum tubes were just entering the market place.
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- In 1970’s integrated circuit boards contained hundreds of transistors. Mini-computers entered the market place.
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- In 1980’s computer chips contained 10’s of millions of transistors. Personal computers were the size of a briefcase.
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- In 1990’s the internet connects 100’s of millions of computers in a global network.
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- In 2000’s computer chips are dispersed into the environment: Video games, clothing, greeting cards, appliances, cars, word processors, cell phones, cameras, drones, chips even replacing bar codes on plastic wrappers. By 2020 the price of a computer chip will be about a penny.
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- In the future the internet will not just be accessed by computers and cell phones. It will be in the walls, furniture, billboards and even in contact lenses. Many people will be wearing internet glasses.
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- With internet contact lenses the computer would quickly warn a diabetic of a low glucose level. You could have a complete entertainment system on you eyeballs projecting movies directly to your retinas.
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- Students could cheat on exams by accessing the internet, need an answer just Google it. Teachers would have to retrain themselves to teach thinking and reasoning instead of memorization and facts.
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- The technology for contact lenses has to get to 3,000 pixels, each one only 10 micrometers thick.
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- Using eye glasses to project images on the retina we need lasers that are only 100 atoms across.
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- No worries about internet communications distracting your driving because cars will drive themselves.
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- Military vehicles will all be driverless.
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- Driverless cars need GPS, Global Positioning Systems, to know their positions to within feet , even inches. These cars have radars in each of the fenders to avoid collisions.
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- Wall screens with internet connections will allow business meetings or family gatherings to appear in your living room.
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- 3-D images will soon appear on all these devices.
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- Flexible screens will use organic compounds on a polymer having Organic Light-Emitting Diodes, OLED’s. Laptops and cell phones will have full size screens and keyboards that roll up.
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- Once in the cyber world you can travel the world, visit museums, attend concerts, walk on the Moon, in ‘virtual reality”.
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- Surgeons will be trained in virtual reality with haptic technology that simulates the sense of touch.
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- Military will simulate training missions for soldiers using virtual reality.
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- A doctor’s office will be a computer station that will diagnose common ailments with 95% accuracy. Medicine will be prescribed knowing you unique genetic risk factors. MRI’s will be the size of cell phones.
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- All this need not be in a doctor’s office. It could be in your toilet seat.
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- Smart pills will contain TV cameras and radios to help the doctor as “ Intel Inside” takes on a whole new meaning.
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- Stay tuned , more announcements will be made shortly.
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- Request these Reviews to learn more:
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- #1420 - Supercomputers in the hands of engineers.
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- #1373 - How computers will get faster. Compared to the human brain.
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- #1130 - What will continue to make our computers smaller, faster, cheaper?
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----- 707-536-3272 ---------------- Monday, March 28, 2016 -----
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