Advanced Technology and Its Uses

chillibreeze writer — Sayan

It was as if yesterday that my dad bought me this computer – the latest in the market – a PII 233 MHz with 32 Mb RAM, a 14 inch non-interlaced Samsung monitor and a whopping 10 GB hard disk, running the latest version of Windows - Windows 95. Now computers featuring the new dual core processors from Intel have hit the market, presenting the first over-clockable chip from Intel since 1998 and true multithreaded performance. Just a day after Intel announced the dual core processors, nVidia unveiled its new nForce4 SLI Intel Edition chipset, which is capable of running the new P4 Extreme Edition 840 dual core processor with two nVidia SLI graphics cards. AMD is shipping its new 64 bit chips and dual cores are probably just around the corner and Microsoft has come up with the 64 bit version of Windows XP – Windows XP X64. To keep all the horsepower from melting the PC down, cooling systems are fast becoming outlandish – water is only a start. The engineers and scientists are doing what they do best – developing new technology – but the real question to ask here is: who cares?

Seriously, who do the companies have in mind while building something like the latest range of Alienware PCs? Definitely not the office. As far back as 1999 Larry Ellison was championing a second version of his thinclient network computer, calling the desktop PC a “ridiculous device” and arguing that a complete PC was a total waste on the desktops of most employees. A number of analysts and journalists are advocating the death of the corporate PC, and it is increasingly obvious that all the horsepower is lost on the employees who primarily use word processors, spreadsheets, custom applications and email. Dual core, SLI, water-cooled PCs in the cubicle - I don’t think so.

So, that leaves gamers, the real target market of these machines. I buy that – they are about the only ones, other than graphics pros, of course, who can justify a machine such as the Alienware Area-51 ALX 7500. But how many gamers need a dual core SLI PC that when overclocked and loaded to the gills and cost $5,000? For one thing most current games aren’t multithreaded – they aren’t designed to take advantage of the dual core processors. Obviously that’ll change, given time, but won’t most gamers, then, stick to the Do-It-Yourself approach – adding high end components, overclocking, and building elaborate cooling systems themselves?

Moreover, although gaming is a $7.3 billion industry in the US, it would seem that consoles rack up much bigger sales numbers: 160.7 million units sold, versus 45 million computer games, according to the Software Entertainment Association. So, who’s really going to buy these PCs in the future? And how many $5,000 machines does Alienware have to sell to make the development worth its while?

So, on to the next presumed audience: the digitally savvy home user, who is processing gigabyte after gigabyte of video, audio, and digital photos. Right, sure, we need 4 GHz. There’s no way the 2.8 GHz Acer box I just bought, with almost a gig of RAM and strapped to a 160 GB external FireWire drive, could possibly be up to the task.

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Sayan writes for chillibreeze.

Advanced Technology and Its Uses

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