Technological Developments and Standards

Abstract

Due to the advances in the micro-electronic technology, the cost of hardware is drastically decreasing for data processing and communication devices. It is interesting to note that the hardware cost goes down appreciably faster for data processing components, such as memories and processors, than for data communications equipment. This development, therefore, favors future systems which perform data processing at the locations where the data is collected, stored or needed, thus reducing the amount of data transmitted. In most cases these systems will be distributed.