Miniaturization is something that has occurred throughout computer history. In their first-generation forms, computers were the size of warehouses, cell phones were more like microchips in a shoebox, and TVs were more like bookshelves. Most of today’s technology was once a gigantic form of what it is today. Quoting Wikipedia: “The observation made in 1965 by Gordon Moore, co-founder of Intel, that the number of transistors per square inch on integrated circuits had doubled every year since the integrated circuit was invented. Moore predicted that this trend would continue for the foreseeable future.” So, does this law apply today? If is does, what are its effects on society?
Recently, on my trip to Atlanta, I toured a place where Moore’s law could not be more apparent – to those who knew what it was. The building was filled with TVs, monitors, computers, cell phones, PDAs, cameras, sound equipment, special effects workstations, and that’s just to name the very apparent items.
Any guesses where I was?
I was at the headquarters of the worldwide leader in news: CNN.
When you walk in the building, the first thing you will probably notice is the gigantic, high definition television display mounted between the second and third floors. It was about 20 feet in diagonal (something I wouldn’t mind having in my living room!) and about 4 inches deep. That’s no misprint people – it was 4 inches deep. The next thing that will probably catch your eyes are dozens of small, high definition LCD display mounted by The Turner Store. These displays were approximately 20 inch diagonal, in a true 16:9 format.
When you go to the tour desk, you are in the midsection of a triangle of round LED TVs that were approximately my size – around 6 feet tall, and about a foot in circumference. These TVs had a rotating view of what was on TV, so as you looked at it, it would rotate so you could see the whole picture.
After we got our tour tickets, we passed through massive security checks to get admitted into the tour. For some reason, my Dad set off the metal detector – of course, this kind of stuff always seems to happen to my family. So, grabbed by security, they use a portable wand and check him over. It goes off in two areas – the back of his pants, and the middle of his calf. Now, I’m not sure what he’d be hiding in his back pocket – which turned out to be guess what? His wallet. The bottom/middle of his calf I could understand the reason for concern – I’ve seen people put some very… interesting things in their socks. The security guard makes him lift both pant legs up, and he waves the wand over it again, and again, it goes off. I guess the security guard decided my 65 year old Dad didn’t look like to much of a threat and let him pass anyway. We’re finally allowed to start the tour.
Throughout the tour, I notice some of the amazing technology they have. Remotely controlled, robotic cameras – which the tour guide mentioned cost about 300,000 a piece – were everywhere. The newsroom had at least 200 LCD monitors that ranged from 17 inches to around 23 inches. Then of course, you had your computers, your other TVs, LaserJet printers, and whatever else a newsroom needs squeezed into a room. Technology was everywhere.
Being the curious type, I decided to ask our Tour Guide a question.
“Ma’am, where is your datacenter located?”
“The what?”
“Your datacenter – where they keep the servers and networking equipment. It might be called the server room?”
“I don’t know what that is. I’m sure we have one, but you won’t see it on the tour.”
Of course there is a datacenter in a place like that – I even run a server on my network, which has a whole 4 computers on it at max. I was really wanting to see what a datacenter of that size looked like, but apparently, that wouldn’t happen.
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