Managing Microcomputers in Large Organizations (1985) / Chapter Skim
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Faster, Smaller, Cheaper: Trends in Microcomputer Technology
Faster, Smaller, Cheaper: Trends in Microcomputer Technology
Pages 19-27
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From page 19... ...
The first is hardware introduction, during which time users have the opportunity to review hardware capabilities. The second phase is the response to that original debut- whether it attracts peripheral vendors of hardware and stimulates software development that provides a wide and rich work environment.
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From page 20... ...
In this first stage we clealt with the personal computer as an incliviclual workstation, as an independent processing unit rather than as part of a larger organizational framework. Looked upon perhaps as a toy by the MIS (management information systems department, it was viewed with suspicion, as something that wasn't really part of the computer resources facility.
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From page 21... ...
The 8-bit CP/M operating system and a number of software graphics packages based on 8-bit technology were designed to do somersaults within a small space because memory and disk storage capacities were at a premium. Stage-one hardware was supported by a cottage industry of software programmers who appeared highly suspect to large companies and federal agencies.
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From page 22... ...
stage of development the communications capability will increase rather than decrease; the clemancis for even broacI-band communications links may well be in place within the next two years. The whole area of microprocessor technology, peripheral chips, and small circuit technology in general has brought additional pressures to bear on the MIS or ADP (automated data processing)
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From page 23... ...
; front ends to large mainframes; twin minis, which hancIle strip files for management decision making; and remote communications to other networks. Based on effective management decisions concerning cost/benefit analysis, these are the directions in which we will be moving in the mid-1980s in terms of a totally distributed information resource.
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From page 24... ...
may provide some stability in the area of the general-purpose business too} like the IBM PC. However, the Apple McIntosh is coming in at a relatively inexpensive level using the 68000 from Motorola, and others will be fast on its heels as a third generation of application software is cleveloped.
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From page 25... ...
processing protocol conversion a nonissue in two or three years, when we will be able to encode all of a system's character formats and control codes at the chip level all transparent to the end user. What is apparent in this discussion of stage-two developments is that vendors have not and managers of computer user environments shouIct not underestimate the demand both for sophisticated devices with interfaces that are easy to use ant!
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From page 26... ...
Cynthia Peripherals. A subsidiary of Honeywell, Cynthia Peripherals has been involvecI in Winchester disk technology, especially removable disk technologies.
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From page 27... ...
Such technology clearly requires a sophisticated management environment. We are moving toward a stage probably near the end of the decacle in which data will be available in data banks at remote locations, artificial intelligence will be incorporated at the hardware level, and logic chips and wafer technology will permit the incredible capability of a 100 million instructions per second.
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