Latest Development of Hardware Technology
CPU
Recently, computer scientists have found that the integration of multiple cores can make CPU run faster by increasing the clock rate and thus it can make the computers run faster. Hence, the future development of the CPU has focused on the integration of more cores into the CPU and the hardware technologies that facilitate the parallel processing of these cores. The newly designed CPUs will be produced in the 45 nm fabrication process.
There will be 8 to 16 cores, up to three levels of cache and more new instructions in a smaller chop die. These CPUs will also have better pipelining technology so that the cores can work in parallel efficiently. They will take full advantage of the newly developed high speed Double-Data-Rate 3 (DDR3) SDRAM so that the speed gap between the CPU and main memory will be shortened.
Main Memory
The new standard of the main memory module is known as Double-Data-Rate 3 (DDR3) SDRAM. It runs from 600 MHz to 800 MHz with a data transfer rate as high as 12,800 MBps. The new hardware technology allows up to 16 GB packed into one DDR3 memory module.
DDR3 operates at a lower voltage level but higher frequency than its predecessor, making it a popular choice in the high-end computer market and notebook computers.
Secondary Storage Devices
We are now living in world full of multimedia elements which require a large amount of storage capacity of secondary storage devices (e.g. hard disk). The industry experts forecast that the standard capacity of a hard disk will be increased to about 1 to 8 TB by 2013. To have better performance, a number of hard disk prototypes have been built which have a rotational speed of up to 15,000 rpm, which doubles the speed of the existing hard disks in the market.
Microdrive is a type of tiny hard disk. It has become one of the essential storage components of handy electronic devices including smart phones, PDAs and portable media players.
Hybrid hard drive is a new type of hard disk that integrates flash memory to achieve shorter access time but with lower power consumption. Portable electronic devices such as notebook computers and portable media players may take such advantage to gain performance boost and longer life time.
Since Blu-ray Discs become the new standard for high-definition optical discs, we can expect that CD-ROMs and DVDs will soon disappear when the cost of using Blu-ray Discs becomes lower and lower. Blu-ray Discs will be the major storage medium for storing computer data as well as various entertainment materials.