Innovation
Rupert Goodwins' Diary
Friday 09/03/2001There's a very old computer industry joke: if cars developed as fast as chips, a Rolls Royce would by now go at 4000 miles an hour, seat five hundred people, fit in a matchbox and cost a tenner. To which the cynics reply, yes, and crash into the verge every three minutes.
Friday
09/03/2001 There's a very old computer industry joke: if cars developed as fast as chips, a Rolls Royce would by now go at 4000 miles an hour, seat five hundred people, fit in a matchbox and cost a tenner. To which the cynics reply, yes, and crash into the verge every three minutes. Intel seems to be going down the route of ridiculous extrapolation. The same day as it announced a cut of five thousand jobs, it also increased investment in R&D by a billion dollars or so and unveiled a new chip production technique that'll help it get to the 10 GHz chip. If things continue in this vein, by this time next year the company will have one employee earning the same as the Canadian GNP and building chips that run at the speed of light. I hereby volunteer to be that employee. And don't laugh -- industry analysts all over the world make sillier predictions and get taken seriously...
09/03/2001 There's a very old computer industry joke: if cars developed as fast as chips, a Rolls Royce would by now go at 4000 miles an hour, seat five hundred people, fit in a matchbox and cost a tenner. To which the cynics reply, yes, and crash into the verge every three minutes. Intel seems to be going down the route of ridiculous extrapolation. The same day as it announced a cut of five thousand jobs, it also increased investment in R&D by a billion dollars or so and unveiled a new chip production technique that'll help it get to the 10 GHz chip. If things continue in this vein, by this time next year the company will have one employee earning the same as the Canadian GNP and building chips that run at the speed of light. I hereby volunteer to be that employee. And don't laugh -- industry analysts all over the world make sillier predictions and get taken seriously...