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Saturday, March 19, 2011

What happens when computers stop shrinking? - Computers - Salon.com

What happens when computers stop shrinking? - Computers - Salon.com: Today, your cell phone has more computer power than all of NASA back in 1969, when it placed two astronauts on the moon. Video games, which consume enormous amounts of computer power to simulate 3-D situations, use more computer power than mainframe computers of the previous decade. The Sony PlayStation of today, which costs $300, has the power of a military supercomputer of 1997, which cost millions of dollars.


As novelist Max Frisch once said, "Technology [is] the knack of so arranging the world that we don't have to experience it."

Inside your laptop there is a chip whose transistors can be seen only under a microscope. These incredibly tiny transistors are created the same way that designs on T-shirts are made.