Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Science 6 July 1984:
Vol. 225. no. 4657, pp. 11 - 18
DOI: 10.1126/science.225.4657.11
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Articles

Computers in Science and Technology: Early Indications

Humberto Gerola 1 and Ralph E. Gomory 2

1 Manager at the IBM Research Laboratory in San Jose, California 95193
2 Vice president and director of research at IBM, Yorktown Heights, New York 10598.

Over the past 20 years computer technology has advanced rapidly, especially in the areas of logic and memory. Continued growth at a similar pace can be expected through and probably beyond the 1980's. The technology has already had such major effects on scientific research and engineering that it is of practical importance to try to predict its evolution and uses. It is likely that the trend toward smaller, faster, and cheaper circuits made possible by improved lithographic techniques will continue, resulting in a factor of 10 increase in speed of central processing units and an even greater increase in speed of single-chip microprocessors by the end of the decade. Similar progress is expected in the areas of memory, magnetic storage, printers, and displays. Overall, approximately 20 percent growth annually in the capability of computing systems can be projected. How this continually increasing computing power will affect scientific and engineering activity is more difficult to predict, but some patterns are emerging. Observations of technical personnel at the IBM research laboratory at Yorktown, New York, where the average user has access to a large amount of computing capability and to a worldwide computer network, indicate that workers in different areas have reacted to computer technology in different ways. Whereas engineers have used computing power, displays, and the ability to communicate or share information more or less equally, management has used communication most and scientists have put the greatest value on computing power and displays.


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Multis: A New Class of Multiprocessor Computers.
C. G. Bell (1985)
Science 228, 462-467
   Abstract »    PDF »


To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)