The future tech of computers?

[Blueliner]

I was just thinking about what computers will be like 5, 10, 15+ years down the road. What will the tech be like?

I think PCI slots will be along for some time, unlike the ISA slots. They will just be PCI 2.0, 3.0, 4.0 and so on, like USB has done.

Will major computer makers like Dell, Gateway start switching to water cooling? As comps keep getting faster, the temps keep going up. But for how long can air cooling stay the norm?

Dial-up internet dies off, or will there alway be people using it? I've thought that maybe the FCC of somebody could mandate that dial-up will be phased out by, say, Jan 1st 2007. Hey, they can mandate TVs take a certain tech path! Wireless, of course, will become bigger than Cable or DSL.

Macs stop using Motorola processors? That one has been floating around for a while.

CRTs all die off? The floppy, already out the door? Serial and printer ports not far behind? The ZIP drives, already decomposing?

Well, IMO, go far enough into the future (say 20+ years) and computers will be self-repairing, self-correcting machines, with AI capabilities to allow themselves to diagnose their own problems, and connectivity to allow themselves to order the required parts, and mechanical ability to load the necessary replacments into themselves.

In other words, current IT fixit folks will be outa work.

A bit like what mechanical diggers did to roadworkers.

As I said, IMO, or more correctly, in my imagining.

Cheers
Mick

PS No overclocked hamsters in the future, maybe? Sorry, couldn't resist.

[thePh@r@oh]

DVD burners i think will be a thing of ancient times.......things will get smaller and smaller more and more compact....just look at the size computers have gotten now....years a go it took rooms to house systems now they have this mini all in 1 systems that fit in the palm of your hand........and i know for a fact some company is making these glasses that project a virtual desktop on the lenses......so maybe "monitors" all together will be gone .....who knows? its gonna be an interesting ride though.

[LaWrEnCe]

It will be interesting to see how storage space will unfold. I mean 5 or so years ago a GB was huge, now everyone has like 40 - 60 GBs of space and that's still not enough.

Who knows, in 5 -10 years time we maybe building/buying our machines with 20 TB hard drives...

[Blueliner]

I was thinking more along the lines of the "near future" and not in the future when Terminator, The Matrix, and such movies come true.

One of the things that has always intrigued me is the way we can gobble up storage space. Back in the AT / 286 days, when space was at a premium, coders took great care in making sure that mininal lines of code were used, as we can see ofmr the yr2k debacle.

But now, code in apps has become so cumbersome that it takes huge swipes out of our storage space.

What I'd like to see if less wastage of space, and more thought given to minimising code, rather than gobbling up all that extra storage we now have.

I think it's a pipe dream though, as coders are getting lazy, IMO as they don't have to worry about making code small anymore. At least in comparison to the old DOS days.

Cheers
Mick

[JPMiller]

Will major computer makers like Dell, Gateway start switching to water cooling? As comps keep getting faster, the temps keep going up. But for how long can air cooling stay the norm?

Personally I think heat is not going to be a factor within the near future...new technology will be more efficient and "clocks" and speed as we know it will become non issues.
There will be alot more of the "all in ones".
Very few decent boards have anything less than 6 channel sound, Nic, Modem, and now with N-force 2, decent graphics, all on board.
Next will be memory!

[Idigguns]

I think PCI is on it's way out. Companies are already talking about a replacement for PCI, more of a serial system with components being housed in a box instead of an exposed card.

There's already one company who makes a laptop that's watercooled. I've heard rumors of manufacturers talking about going to watercooling in the near-future. However, in 5 or 10 years, they'll probably have cooler running CPU's and go back to air cooling again.

I think dial-up will be around for a long time. I live right in the middle of one of the most densly populated areas of the country (South Florida) and I can't get DSL or cable. Think about all the people that live way out in the country. Also, prices are not coming down, and alot of people won't pay for broadband.

CRT's will be around for awhile. LCD's just aren't as good for gaming or serious graphics work. OLED's aren't very popular yet and are still pretty expensive to make. And they don't make them in any big sizes. I think someone just came out with a 15" OLED recently. It remains to be seen if OLED's will be as good as CRT's for graphics work and gaming.

Floppies and Zip drives should be the first to go. However, I've bought hardware recently that had the drivers on floppy. Also, how do you flash your BIOS without a floppy? Or load the drivers for a RAID card before installing Windows, without a floppy? So, who knows? Maybe floppies will stick around for awhile.

Serial ports are still being used for things like external modems and UPS's. Printer ports and game ports are probably on their way out because of USB.

[Redwolf]

In 20 years, computers as we know them today will be something put in museums and anquite stores (well...maybe not yet). In truth, no one knows where technology is going. However, I can tel you this much:

1) The future does not lie in the use of silicon. The pure silicon we use today will either be depleted or alternatives found. Nanotechnology will make possible many, many more types of computers than just Silicon, DNA, and optical machines. I think optical computers are the next logical step fowards in computers, then I don't know what from then.

2) Wireless uplinks? To the brain? Hey, who knows? If women in the US today are willing to have surgeons put silicone into their breasts, imagine what kind of communication devices could be put in with the brain. It would be...quite interesting.

3) Things that will be 'dead end'

CD/DVD storage (but not optical storage)
Mice and keyboards
Current GUI systems (3d is the new way)
Somehow, Microsft will lose out in this future.
and, oh yeah
Our concept of Files and Folders may be obsolete too.

Hard too imagine, eh? Well, that's 20 years down the road. 5 years?

1) Computer politics will become increasingly more important as computers become increasingly important. Laws like the DMCA, and organizations like the FCC will HAVE to be changed somehow.

2) USB becomes more and more accessible and of course more popular. Homebrew stuff (aka Nintendo-2-PC controller kits) will use USB rather than Legacy ports.

3) We will see Microsoft and AOL either lose or gain poluarity, dependiong on how things go. As users become more concious about machines, they will start to see alternatives to the porgrams they currently use. Example: Just yesterday, my father calls and says he's having problems with his comp. I go to see, and he had installed Hotbar (at the urging of my compueter-illiterate mother), and wanted it off since he discoverede it came with 50-million popups. After using Adaware and Spybot, I ask him if he would like to try a new browser with anti-popups built in. He says 'okay'. I install Mozilla for him, and for 10 minutes familiarize him with it. Now he loves it and won't use IE again. I also showed him a better alternative to the Weather Channel Program. As he becomes more concious about machines, he will see even more alternatives. Down the road, an OSX-powered computer with MS Office and KDE might be a reality for him. It would have to have a 3 button wheel mouse, however.

[agathodaimon]

Originally posted by LaWrEnCe
It will be interesting to see how storage space will unfold. I mean 5 or so years ago a GB was huge, now everyone has like 40 - 60 GBs of space and that's still not enough.

Who knows, in 5 -10 years time we maybe building/buying our machines with 20 TB hard drives...

I remember sitting in a movie theater when Johnny Mnemonic first came out... And in a line where Keanu Reeves said "I've got 50 gigs stuck in my head" I heard someone lauging out loud in the theater saying "50 gigs!!! yeah right! haha"...

Funny how you remember odd things like that, but look at the storage space we have now on our desktop machines... And that movie REALLY isn't THAT old...