The Tech Boom, Moore s Law, and the Next Killer App

The Tech Boom, Moore's Law, and the Next Killer App

On a bell curve, our privacy has declined at the same rate that the Central Processing Unit has advanced! I'm certain Gordon Moore, Intel's cofounder and Chairman Emeritus, didn't have that in mind in 1965 when he articulated "Moore's Law" ”the hypothesis that " transistor density on a manufactured die will double every year." But there's a direct corollary! The threat to our privacy has increased in direct proportion to the power of the CPU. In fact, our personal information remained relatively secure until the mid-nineties, when the Pentium-class computer equipped with Windows 95 and a 28 kbps modem converged with the Internet.

Moore's Law was half of the equation that sparked the technology boom. The other component was the quest for "the next killer app." In the early days, the CPU was in a constant race to catch up with the latest software. I upgraded computers three times between 1987 and 1992, from a 286, to a 386, to a 486. This boded very well for Intel! Why upgrade so often? To keep pace with the next killer app. Computers were slower than molasses back then. In the history of personal computing, there has only been a handful of killer apps. By "killer app" I'm not simply referring to software applications, although software was the first killer app. I define "killer app" as any computer application or peripheral that sparks the need to upgrade to the next generation of computers! Today, iPods and digital cameras are the next killer app. Here are some others:

• The spreadsheet

• The word processor

• The database

• The Windows/Mac GUI interface

• Desktop publishing

• The Web browser

• The Internet

• E-mail

• Digital imaging

• MP3 (digital compression)

• CD-RW

• File sharing

• 3D gaming

• Broadband

• WI-FI

• Digital video editing

• Convergence

The personal computer was initially a dud. The public at large showed little interest or inclination in buying one until Lotus 1-2-3 and Corel WordPerfect hit the shelves and sparked the mass computer revolution. Do you know what differentiates the computer from every other machine on the planet? Every machine was invented to do something, except the computer! The computer was the first machine ever invented to do nothing. What is a computer without an operating system, besides an expensive doorstop? Software can do a variety of things; that's why programs are called applications. But what can a computer do without software? Nothing! What can a computer do with software? Virtually anything!