Interesting People mailing list archives
The Chip Glut
From: Dave Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Wed, 09 Oct 2002 13:32:39 -0400
------ Forwarded Message From: "James H. Morris" <james.morris () cs cmu edu> Date: Tue, 08 Oct 2002 11:54:20 -0400 To: dave () farber net Subject: The Chip Glut Like the farmers and the steel makers before us, the computer industry is encountering the horror of glut conditions. Moore's law, which brings an annual doubling of computer performance, has been hailed as a triumph of engineering; but it's a business disaster. The increasing numbers of chips being produced, each with far more power than the last generation's, have nowhere to go. What to do? 1. Software bloat? While the chip makers have been speeding up computers at an exponential rate, the software producers have been adding features at only a linear rate. Programmers must redouble their efforts to fill the computers with useless code. 2. Tail fins? When the auto industry hit its stride, it discovered styling. We need laptops with bigger dongles and servers that emit a throaty roar. 3. Fashion? Every year IBM produces a new line of ThinkPad's in basic black, just like Henry Ford's Model T. Steve Jobs, taking a note from Alfred Sloan, offers colors and titanium. 4. Edible chips? The silicon chip needs to adopt the economic model of its lowly cousin the potato chip. Supermarket aisles could be filled with nourishing smart chips. They could even serve useful medical purposes after being ingested, monitoring intestinal conditions or blocking fat digestion. 5. Exploding computers? The munitions industry solved the oversupply problem long ago. The power density of today's laptop batteries is approaching that of TNT. Let's drop our old laptops on Baghdad. The ones' that don't blow up will drive Saddam nuts, just like they do us. 6. Welfare for the computer industry? No one can deny that, like food and steel, computers are vital for our national welfare. Therefore, like the farmers, we should be paid not to produce them. The fab lines should be idled, the programmers told to cool it, and we should all be paid! 7. Useful, desirable, products? Nah. James H. Morris Dean, School of Computer Science 412 609-5000 http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~jhm ------ End of Forwarded Message
Current thread:
- The Chip Glut Dave Farber (Oct 09)