The Future of Computing

An anonymous reader writes "Penn State computer science professor Max Fomitchev explains that computing has evolved in a spiral pattern from a centralized model to a distributed model that retains some aspects of centralized computing. Single-task PC operating systems (OSes) evolved into multitasking OSes to make the most of increasing CPU power, and the introduction of the graphical user interface at the same time reduced CPU performance and fueled demands for even more efficiencies. "The role of CPU performance is definitely waning, and if a radical new technology fails to materialize quickly we will be compelled to write more efficient code for power consumption costs and reasons," Fomitchev writes. Slow, bloated software entails higher costs in terms of both direct and indirect power consumption, and the author reasons that code optimization will likely involve the replacement of blade server racks with microblade server racks where every microblade executes a dedicated task and thus eats up less power. The collective number of microblades should also far outnumber initial "macro" blades. Fully isolating software components should enhance the system's robustness thanks to the potential of real-time component hot-swap or upgrade and the total removal of software installation, implementation, and patch conflicts. The likelihood of this happening is reliant on the factor of energy costs, which directly feeds into the factor of code optimization efficiency."

Comments

Re:Bloat

[TheRaven64]

One reason I think is the fact that programming languages have become more high-level over time. Decreasing

Really? Languages don't get much more high-level than Smalltalk, and a Squeak does things that C/C++ programs seem to require a lot more bloat to manage.

Re:Bloat

[chris_eineke]

Please remember that a Windows system by default doesn't come with a shitload of libraries like any desktop linux distribution does nowadays. kTorrent's payload is

ceineke@lapsledge:/home/eineke$ d /usr/bin/ktorrent
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 284636 2006-05-23 14:51 /usr/bin/ktorrent*

284636 bytes. Not too bad for a K-app. But consider this, Batman: (leading whitespace removed)

ceineke@lapsledge:/home/eineke$ ldd /usr/bin/ktorrent
linux-gate.so.1 => (0xffffe000)
libktorrent.so.0 => /usr/lib/libktorrent.so.0 (0xb7e38000)
libkparts.so.2 => /usr/lib/libkparts.so.2 (0xb7df5000)
libkio.so.4 => /usr/lib/libkio.so.4 (0xb7aca000)
libkdeui.so.4 => /usr/lib/libkdeui.so.4 (0xb7807000)
libkdesu.so.4 => /usr/lib/libkdesu.so.4 (0xb77f1000)
libkwalletclient.so.1 => /usr/lib/libkwalletclient.so.1 (0xb77e1000)
libkdecore.so.4 => /usr/lib/libkdecore.so.4 (0xb75b9000)
libDCOP.so.4 => /usr/lib/libDCOP.so.4 (0xb7588000)
libresolv.so.2 => /lib/tls/i686/cmov/libresolv.so.2 (0xb7574000)
libutil.so.1 => /lib/tls/i686/cmov/libutil.so.1 (0xb7571000)
libart_lgpl_2.so.2 => /usr/lib/libart_lgpl_2.so.2 (0xb755c000)
libidn.so.11 => /usr/lib/libidn.so.11 (0xb752d000)
libkdefx.so.4 => /usr/lib/libkdefx.so.4 (0xb7501000)
libqt-mt.so.3 => /usr/lib/libqt-mt.so.3 (0xb6d18000)
libaudio.so.2 => /usr/lib/libaudio.so.2 (0xb6d03000)
libXt.so.6 => /usr/lib/libXt.so.6 (0xb6cb5000)
libjpeg.so.62 => /usr/lib/libjpeg.so.62 (0xb6c96000)
libXi.so.6 => /usr/lib/libXi.so.6 (0xb6c8e000)
libXrandr.so.2 => /usr/lib/libXrandr.so.2 (0xb6c8b000)
libXcursor.so.1 => /usr/lib/libXcursor.so.1 (0xb6c82000)
libXinerama.so.1 => /usr/lib/libXinerama.so.1 (0xb6c7e000)
libXft.so.2 => /usr/lib/libXft.so.2 (0xb6c6c000)
libfreetype.so.6 => /usr/lib/libfreetype.so.6 (0xb6c03000)
libfontconfig.so.1 => /usr/lib/libfontconfig.so.1 (0xb6bd5000)
libdl.so.2 => /lib/tls/i686/cmov/libdl.so.2 (0xb6bd2000)
libpng12.so.0 => /usr/lib/libpng12.so.0 (0xb6baf000)
libXext.so.6 => /usr/lib/libXext.so.6 (0xb6ba1000)
libX11.so.6 => /usr/lib/libX11.so.6 (0xb6abb000)
libSM.so.6 => /usr/lib/libSM.so.6 (0xb6ab3000)
libICE.so.6 => /usr/lib/libICE.so.6 (0xb6a9b000)
libXrender.so.1 => /usr/lib/libXrender.so.1 (0xb6a93000)
libz.so.1 => /usr/lib/libz.so.1 (0xb6a7f000)
libfam.so.0 => /usr/lib/libfam.so.0 (0xb6a76000)
libpthread.so.0 => /lib/tls/i686/cmov/libpthread.so.0 (0xb6a64000)
libacl.so.1 => /lib/libacl.so.1 (0xb6a5c000)
libattr.so.1 => /lib/libattr.so.1 (0xb6a58000)
libstdc++.so.6 => /usr/lib/libstdc++.so.6 (0xb6983000)
libm.so.6 => /lib/tls/i686/cmov/libm.so.6 (0xb6961000)
libgcc_s.so.1 => /lib/libgcc_s.so.1 (0xb6956000)
libc.so.6 => /lib/tls/i686/cmov/libc.so.6 (0xb6827000)
libXfixes.so.3 => /usr/lib/libXfixes.so.3 (0xb6823000)
libexpat.so.1 => /usr/lib/libexpat.so.1 (0xb6804000) /lib/ld-linux.so.2 (0xb7efb000)
libXau.so.6 => /usr/lib/libXau.so.6 (0xb6800000)

I'm sure that when you claim that uTorrent isn't as large as other Shareware programs you have looked into its library dependencies. Or did you?