UNIX futures

[Cory Kempf]

pete at romed.UUCP (Pete Rourke) writes:

>Has anyone assembled ideas on what UNIX's future might be in 2000?

I have not assembled any collections of ideas, but I have thought
about it a lot...

>With all of the hardware makers talking about 2000 MIPS in a desktop/side
>system with multiple processors, and very unique operator interfaces, 
>(like virtual reality & "Knowledge Navigator"), I'd imagine there will
>be a lot of unique things happening to the operating enviornments.

Personally, I would prefer a system with 2 BIPS over 2000 MIPS, :-)

Seriously, raw processing power will probably not have as much of an
impact as improvements in memory and interface technologies will.  
For example, consider a 100 MIPS system with say, 1TB of non-volatile 
zero wait state RAM...  and a 3D 24 bit/pixel Colour Display system 
combined with dataglove technology.

>Has there been a discussion of what actually will be the human interface
>in 2000? 

A while back, when the nExt was first comming out, there was a discussion
about what the next generation user interfaces would look like.  Most of
the ideas centred around a 3D virtual office metaphor.

Using current technology, we have the ability to produce a 3D display.
Nintendo is already marketing a dataglove.  I have seen two different 
technologies that their proponents claim will offer memory in the TaraByte
range at reasonable cost in a few years.  (I have yet to see them on the
market though).  If you put 4 88k processors on a single system, you 
should be able to get about 100 MIPS.  Several other companies have
processors that give similar performance.

I hope to see such a system offered in the next five years or so... with
a pricetag of about $15,000.

>How much will simulation play in the natural interface to the human from
>the computer?

That question is directly related to how much we can expect the humans to 
be able/willing to learn.  If we expect little, the systems will most likely need
to have a very solid metaphor, simulating something in the "real world (tm)"
that people understand already.  What will these be with a generation that
has grown up with computers?  

+C
-- 
Cory Kempf					I do speak for the company (sometimes).
Three Letter Company							603 883 2474
email: cory at 3letter.mv.com, decvax!bu-tyng!3letter!cory, harvard!zinn!3letter!cory