The Future of Computer Hardware Innovation

The last 30 years of technological innovation have brought about a huge improvement in the way people interact with each other and how and where they can access information. Gone are the days when you had to book some time to access a shared computer in a library to get access to very limited information on early forms of the Internet. Both the speed of data transmission and of computer’s processing power have increased by an unprecedented amount. But how long can this carry on for and what can we expect in the future of computer hardware?

Moore’s law tells us that every 2 years the amount of transistors that can be fit on a computer chip doubles every two years. This can be perfectly observed when progress from the late 1960s to now laid out on a chart. So far it has been an incredibly reliable way to predict future improvements, but slowly technology is catching up with the limitations that are imposed by the laws of physics. This, however, does not mean that we will end up in a situation where progress comes to a halt and we have the perfect computer that does everything.

The future of computer hardware innovation has already started transitioning towards an ever smaller device. The smartphone in your pocket is far more powerful that research computers were in the 70s and every couple of months newer and improved devices make it onto the market. This trend is showing no signs of slow down and the demand from the consumer is there to be able to do more through mobile devices than on traditional desktop or laptop computers.

Computer devices are also becoming ever more interactive with companies like Google and Facebook heavily investing in virtual interaction and computer technology built into eye glasses. Mobile devices first brought about touch technology with different types of gestures being interpreted. This technology is now also being used on notebooks to make the user experience more intuitive and easy to adapt to.

Cloud computing is probably a term you have heard a lot and you probably in one way or another already use it. Whether to store data or interact with software applications, there is practically no limit to what can be done through a cloud service. One of the main innovative benefits of this technological trend lies in the fact that the cloud is virtual and can be accessed from anywhere in the world as long as there is an Internet connection. You simply do not have to be at your home or office computer anymore to access certain files.

The other thing that has to be noted is that computer hardware is still in a downward trend when it comes to price. Devices and accessories are becoming less expensive every year which means that they are accessible to more people. This also means that every more computing power can be utilized for research and development to come up with ever better products and solutions to hugely complex scientific problems.

The future of computer hardware may seem like it is limited when you consider how much things have changed in the past 30 years, but there is still so much that can be achieved by way of integration into more daily life events.