Hardware design ramifications
From Pelennor
Hardware designs will need to adapt in certain ways to optimize the performance and economic efficiency of the data architecture we envision:
[edit]
General Discussion
- Encryption accelerators (or special CPU instructions useful to crypto) will need to become standard. PKI is very CPU intensive, yet signing thousands of data entities per second will become necessary. (research: current CPU capabilities here.. see research on Secure Border Gateway Protocol)
- Tiered data storage with massive capacity will need to become commonplace. This is the concept of using multiple storage mediums to maximize their individual strengths. Today, the largest capacity mediums tend to be the slowest. Faster mediums are basically a cache for the slower mediums.
- 1 TB hard disks and 40 GB flash memory drives are now entering the consumer market
- In the next 2-4 years, we should expect to see 100+ GB flash memory drives and 30+ TB magnetic media drives.
- In a decade, we may reach the petabyte mark. This certainly bodes well for the never delete philosophy!
- Numerous alternative storage mediums are also being researched. It is quite possible that tiered storage will be unnecessary in the future. Some new technologies promise a high-capacity medium with very low access latency combined with very high throughput.
- Fault tolerance will need to become a commodity feature. The more data we handle, the less room there is for error. Manual intervention in the case of data corruption quickly becomes impossible as the size and relational complexity of data stores increases.
- Multiple network paths per communication node will become necessary to meet increasing demand for high availability and throughput. Service will be available through long range wireless providers, short range access points, local P2P mesh networks, and of course, land lines.
- End-user hardware designs will need to become simpler and more modular. Fixed-purpose devices, whether single-function (ex. iPod) or multi-function (ex. iPhone), are popular today, but this design philosophy will become a liability in the future. Instead, it will be attractive to mix and match hardware on the fly, much like changing clothing to suit activity or climate conditions. Our future clothing itself will likely include hardware, though it will blend in invisibly. (unlike "futuristic-looking" wearable computing prototypes of today!) See mobile computing section..
[edit]
