Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cornell!batcomputer!itsgw!steinmetz!crdgw1!crdgw1.ge.com!barnett From: barnett@crdgw1.crd.ge.com (Bruce Barnett) Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions,comp.unix.wizards,comp.society.futures Subject: Re: Implications of large memory systems Message-ID: <68@crdgw1.crd.ge.com> Date: 27 Mar 89 04:00:28 GMT References: <15184@cup.portal.com> <15407@cup.portal.com> <16230@mimsy.UUCP> <21216@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> <13324@steinmetz.ge.com> <28819@bu-cs.BU.EDU> <13433@steinmetz.ge.com> <28957@bu-cs.BU.EDU> Sender: news@crdgw1.crd.ge.com Reply-To: barnett@crdgw1.crd.ge.com (Bruce Barnett) Followup-To: comp.unix.questions Organization: GE Corp. R & D, Schenectady, NY Lines: 37 In-reply-to: bzs@bu-cs.BU.EDU (Barry Shein) Xref: utzoo comp.unix.questions:12458 comp.unix.wizards:15242 comp.society.futures:1113 Another thing to consider about 1 GByte Memory workstations, is that when the systems have more potential, the creative researcher finds a way to use that power. They thought 64K was enough. Then 256K was enough.... Bitmapped workstations revolutionized the way we work with computers. Suppose the workstation of the future had: Expert systems assiting you in creating new software, tapping into the knowledge base of the results of a million person-years of software experience. Hypertext encyclopedias available via USENET. Voice recognition systems, including personaility traits, inflections, etc. Artificial personalities. Real-Time, Real Colour 3D Imaging systems. When we worked with Punchcards, 64K was a lot. Video terminals 640K? Bitmapped graphics. 6.4M? Expert Systems 64M? ???? 640M? Give me enough memory, CPU power, tools, and time, and I would come up with one or two ideas. -- Bruce G. Barnett a.k.a. uunet!steinmetz!barnett,