Tarsus Technologies explains where processor technology is heading

"Technology is still advancing as quickly today as it has been over the past two years," says Darryl Squara, business manager at Tarsus Technologies, the value-add distribution arm of JSE-listed MB Technologies.

"People are constantly demanding more from their IT equipment and productivity is becoming more paramount as a competitive advantage. We are also seeing vendors continuously trying to outdo each other in bringing out the latest, greatest and fastest products."

Software is also a big driving force in the advancement of hardware technology. "Software packages are becoming more and more demanding on hardware and therefore users are being forced to upgrade or buy newer, better computers and accessories," continues Squara.

"In the short-term, I believe that central processing units (CPUs) will continue to grow, not only in speed but also the way in which they operate and the added functionality they are supplied with.

"Take the new Intel `Northwood` Pentium 4 processor for example, it is currently able to achieve a speed of 2.2GHz. The on-board cache memory has also been upgraded to 512KB from the old 256KB," continues Squara.

In addition, the processor has been designed to take advantage of "streaming SIMMD extensions" which are found on 3D rendering software packages, allowing a saving of up to 30% on rendering images, for example. Memory technology has also changed, now offering three main types. In order of speed and price, these include: SDRAM, DDR and RDRAM.

These technological advancements will increase ease-of-use and speed. Initially any new technology will be more expensive, "but as demand increases for this technology, price will drop - allowing the average person to afford it too," re-assures Squara.

How will these advancements in processor technology influence the product in the channel? According to Squara, "Customers will be faced with - and now I am talking obviously of Intel-based machines - only two offerings in the desktop market, those being Intel Celeron and Intel Pentium 4. The Pentium III will fall away entirely, and the Celeron will increase in speed to basically equal or better the speeds of the older Pentium III. The Pentium 4 will be the mid- to high-end desktop processor. Serious graphics and game users especially, will have the speed and versatility they require. In essence, customers will have an `easier` choice of products, and the products will fit into more specific user-related markets."

Data is progressively becoming a driving force in the advancement of technology. In fact, it is probably one of the most important factors in the market today. Storage is currently one of the most lucrative sectors in the IT industry, and will most likely be for quite some time. People want to store more data, and the data they store is becoming more valuable.

The amount of data flowing across a network is ever increasing too. The management of this data is therefore becoming increasingly important, so as not to compromise quality of service and data efficiency. Squara foresees that due to this being an ever-increasing phenomenon, the future will pose an even more challenging task for the management of data flow.

"The ongoing advancements in processor technology are driven by an ever-increasing need for more speed, more reliability and more productivity. People have a constant need to do things faster and better than their competitors, in order to gain the lead in their specific market. Software vendors are answering their needs in the form of packages that can perform these functions for them, and in turn, the necessary hardware platforms need to be available in order for these software packages to run effectively."