ON A CLEAR DAY YOU CAN SEE FOREVER

M I C R O P R O C E S S O R R E P O R T microprocessors, digital-signal processors, and application-specific digital engines and the ways they will be created, programmed, and used in the future. Will they transform life as profoundly as the internal combustion engine, the jet plane, the computer, and the Internet? Will they be successful, useful, and accepted? Some technologies seem to have a sure short-term impact. Others, like icebergs in time, may extend their mass forever. Technology nominations and the ultimate Annual Award are MPR analysts’ votes for the future, glimpses into what might happen and what processors might be feasible. This year’s limelight is shining on logic and architecture design technologies. Technologies can’t appear overnight; their roots are in accumulated scientific knowledge and methods and the hopes of many contributors—universities and other organizations. It is with this humble understanding that we limited our search to technologies that were recently presented by commercial companies or used by them to create test products.