Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Computers of the Future

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In the next couple of years, computers will use more and more cores. Intel’s new 6-core processor is proof of this. The question I have is whether our operating systems can support that many cores. Windows Vista can support an unlimited number of cores, but there is a limit to the number of physical processors (a processor contains at least one core).

In my opinion, there is a problem because adding cores does not make your computer that much faster (speaking from personal experience) except when you are running multiple programmes at the same time. In that case, it is a bit faster. I have a 2 Gigahertz dual-core computer and a 2.4 single-core computer. They both take a long time to boot up because that is one task. Once running, the dual-core is faster because it is doing multiple tasks at the same time. Even running MSN in the background is a task to the computer. The individual programmes themselves don’t run much faster. If they do, it is because the dual-core computer also has a lot more ram and a better video card, which have nothing to do with the processor.

In a few years, people will 300 terabyte hard disks instead of 300 gigabyte ones. www.tigerdirect.ca has 1 terabyte hard disks for $149.99 as of September 23rd, 2008. Imagine what the price for a terabyte will be in a few years! Of course, with terabytes of hard disk space, we will also have terabytes of ram. Blue-Ray™ readers are around $180 (www.tigerdirect.ca) and I am sure that they will become standard in five years or less.

With all the changes to hardware, I estimate that, within a few more years, people will be running windows Vista as comfortably as they are running windows XP today.

-Jamie Marchant

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

2 comments:

SuPeR said...

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a made this in word

Unknown said...
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