Computers in the 1980s - Trends in Hardware Technology

Abstract : The paper presents a technological forecast of computer hardware trends in the 1975 to 1990 time period. Projected are the improvements in switching speed, power consumption, cost and physical size of bipolar and metal-oxide semiconductor logic circuits. Based on these, the computing speed of processors for several computer architectures are forecast -- uniprocessors, pipeline processors, array processors, associative array processors, and for command-control, multiprocessors. The storage capacity and access memories, and summarized for other solid-state memory component technologies. The paper concludes with a discussion of innovations in computer system design and use which become feasible due to the expected hardware developments. (Author)