Computers and the Future

Abstract

The years to the end of the 1980s will be years of relentless change, to which computers and energy will be the main contributors: computers because they will continue to expand, energy for the opposite reason. We cannot stop this change; in an increasingly world-wide competitive economy, the pace is being set elsewhere, and it is both inconceivable and virtually impossible to drop out of the race. In computing, the pattern of that change is already set:

• existing machines and products will reach an ever-wider market as they continue to drop in price;

• new products are already in the wings, based on the heavy R and D effort of the last five years;

• the pace of microelectronic development will be continuing to deliver more powerful microprocessors and denser storage chips, up to the point at which they defeat the skills of designers to incorporate them into systems.