Which companies are eligible candidates to build a large, complex networked system like the hyp(ed)othetical Info-Highway? IBM? Yes. AT&T? Yes. Microsoft? No. Apple? No. Oracle? Maybe. Sun Microsystems? Maybe. Sony? Forget it. 3DO? 3D who? The Info-Highway brings us right back to basic issues. The fundamental separation between simple and complex systems permeates competitive bake-offs and industrial face-offs throughout the computer business. This separation is the key distinction between personal computers and workstations … PCs are simple systems; workstations are complex systems.
Predictor: Stahlman, Mark
Prediction, in context:In a 1994 article for Network Computing magazine, Mark Stahlman writes: ”Configuring, supporting, expanding and operating a network of this size simply has never been done before. It will be a humongous undertaking. The number of parallel CPUs, disk drives and I/O cycles that will be needed to supply millions of consumers with Video On Demand (VOD), Very Interactive Games (VIGs) and Virtual Karate Lessons (VKLs) is staggering. No one has ever built a system of such scope, scale and sheer massiveness. We are talking about something big, really big … Which companies are eligible candidates to build a large, complex networked system like the hyp(ed)othetical Info-Highway? IBM? Yes. AT&T? Yes. Microsoft? No. Apple? No. Oracle? Maybe. Sun Microsystems? Maybe. Sony? Forget it. 3DO? 3D who? The Info-Highway brings us right back to basic issues. The fundamental separation between simple and complex systems permeates competitive bake-offs and industrial face-offs throughout the computer business. This separation is the key distinction between personal computers and workstations … PCs are simple systems; workstations are complex systems.”
Biography:Mark Stahlman was the president of the New York-based research and financial services firm New Media Associates in the 1990s. (Entrepreneur/Business Leader.)
Date of prediction: April 4, 1994
Topic of prediction: Information Infrastructure
Subtopic: General
Name of publication: Network Computing
Title, headline, chapter name: Right-Of-Way On The Info-Highway
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
Page 51
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Taylor, Kellen L.