A lot more hardware innovation can be expected in the future, but the big challenge will be how to cope with the increasing amounts of data, reports Nick Jones, Gartner VP and research fellow.
Speaking at Gartner`s Symposium ITXPO in Cape Town this week, Jones said Moore`s Law - the doubling of processing power in a chip every 18 months - continues to hold true and that other technologies will eventually replace silicon as a media for chip manufacturing.
"The high end of computing will continue to get faster and we will see more use of grid computing as a means of analysing data," he said.
Jones cited the example of SETI - the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence - that uses thousands of ordinary PCs to analyse signals received from outer space via radio telescopes.
"However, grid computing is time-consuming and relies on that PC not being used for other tasks."
Jones said there is a concerted effort to get technology more mobile, with the breakthrough in fuel cell power imminent. The development of micro electronic memory sets - miniature gyroscopes that are being used in car airbags - will also have a profound impact on small electronic gadgets, he noted.
"A great example of their application would be if I tilted my Palmtop and the notes scrolled automatically."
On the security front, he said there is a trend to embed security measures at the hardware level, which will prove to be a mixed blessing. "It will be good for companies, but I don`t think society is ready for this yet."
Society may also prove resistant to the introduction of tags using embedded radio frequency (RF) technology, especially in the consumer arena.
"If my clothes had RF tags in them and I walked into a store that had the ability to read them, the tags could tell them when and where I bought my clothes, how much I paid for them and profile me as a target market. This could lead to a lot of privacy issues and consumer resistance."
He noted that the data explosion has proven to be problematic. "The growth in data is at a compounded 30% to 40% every year and we are not keeping up with the means and ability to analyse it. Ideally everything on the Web should be tagged, but who is going to do it and pay for it?"
The problem of more and more data will not go away and technologies such as artificial intelligence have not helped to solve the problem of analysing it. As technology introduces changes to society, so companies must change as well.
Jones said many people are more willing to take part in co-operative ventures in virtual reality than in real life. Internet-based games that have literally thousands of participants have begun to blur the distinction between virtual reality and the real world.
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