Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!rutgers!mailrus!bbn!rochester!pt.cs.cmu.edu!ius3.ius.cs.cmu.edu!ralphw From: ralphw@ius3.ius.cs.cmu.edu (Ralph Hyre) Newsgroups: comp.arch Subject: Re: The 3G Machine Keywords: user-interface bandwidth Message-ID: <3440@pt.cs.cmu.edu> Date: 28 Oct 88 22:30:04 GMT References: <470@oracle.UUCP> <3405@pt.cs.cmu.edu> Sender: netnews@pt.cs.cmu.edu Organization: Carnegie-Mellon University, CS/RI Lines: 42 In article <3405@pt.cs.cmu.edu> koopman@a.gp.cs.cmu.edu (Philip Koopman) writes: >In article <470@oracle.UUCP>, csimmons@hqpyr1.oracle.UUCP (Charles Simmons) writes: >> thinking about the 3G machine. > >> But what I'm really interested in is, what's that third G? > [rhetorical part, maybe I'll crosspost to computers and society digest later] I'm amazed that an order of magnitude increase every 4 years is happening in this industry. When will/can it stop? What's the next great challenge, after computers? A shame the political issues (like the DRAM crunch delaying new products, and RISC/CISC wars [quit reading netnews and get back to your real work and designing these 3G machines], and OS/2 vs Unix) are shaping the future more than technical ones. [now, on to the technical content.] >How about gigapixels/second. Animation is the key to interaction, >and interaction is the key to understanding. >A 2Kx2K display at 1 gigapixels/second would update at 250 frames/second, >which is probably overkill. How about multiple screens updating >at, say 25 frames/second? I believe that only 2-3 screens/person are needed, but remember you want 24-bits/pixel, so its really 2kx2kx24 at 10 frames/second is the limit. Unless timesharing makes a comeback, the silicon graphics 'Super-Personal' IRIS GTX can come out a year or two before the 21st century. I'm more intrigued by the 3d comments, but am impressed by THOSE bandwidth requirements (with 'stupid' encoding, 1kx1kx1kx32bits/pixelx66 frame/second) is 2.27 TERAflops/second, another three orders of magnitude and (presumably) 20 years away. [I suspect no-one will use stupid encoding, so we'll see vector-based 3-D graphics systems may make a comeback.] Snooping the transoceannic phone cables will consume a gig/second of INPUT capacity, so the NSA is in for some high-quality competition. -- - Ralph W. Hyre, Jr. Internet: ralphw@ius3.cs.cmu.edu Phone:(412) CMU-BUGS Amateur Packet Radio: N3FGW@W2XO, or c/o W3VC, CMU Radio Club, Pittsburgh, PA "You can do what you want with my computer, but leave me alone!8-)" -- - Ralph W. Hyre, Jr. Internet: ralphw@ius3.cs.cmu.edu Phone:(412) CMU-BUGS Amateur Packet Radio: N3FGW@W2XO, or c/o W3VC, CMU Radio Club, Pittsburgh, PA "You can do what you want with my computer, but leave me alone!8-)"