Smart Infrastructures
Smart Infrastructures: Computational Resources to Burn
Over the next 15–20 years we will overcome limits in availability of our computational resources. While today, high-performance computing applications are mostly limited to capital-intensive industries like petroleum exploration, aircraft and automotive design, and pharmaceuticals, over time these capabilities will migrate to mass markets and eventually into the hands of consumers. In this world of abundant computing, our interactions with computers will no longer be constrained to laptops, desktops, and handhelds. High-powered computing capability will be embedded in our physical environment, in living things, medicine, walls, furniture, garments, tools, utensils, and toys. We'll be able to interact with information in place as naturally as we interact now with physical things, which will become increasingly less passive, and more active. In short, the computation revolution will have huge impacts on daily life, workplaces, and in many industries. In this memo we review the fundamental technologies driving exponential growth in computing resources and some of the likely applications in areas such as entertainment, gaming, health, and communications.
Publication Date
May 2007