Take a last look at your laptop, mobile phone and handheld computer
because they will look totally different before the decade is out,
writes Eric Doyle.
Developing technologies for screens and chips are contributing
to new design ideas that could mean the concept of hardware will
soften and devices will become haute couture rather than high-tech.
Flexible, low-power, miniaturised - even wearable - devices will be
brought out to test the market.
A major advance in memory chip design, being worked on by IBM
and its German partner Infineon, uses magnetic, rather than
electronic, charges to store data.
The main advantage is that the data stored on the processor
remains when the power is switched off. This would enable
applications to stay in memory even though the device is not
running. Because the data remains intact, an instant-on computer
avoids the power-off and power-up delays at the beginning and end
of a session. It also has the potential to minimise the time taken
to power up downed servers with in-memory databases.
The basic concepts of Magnetic Ram (MRam) started in 1974 when
IBM devised a miniature component called the magnetic tunnel
junction. But the feasibility of a marketable product was only
investigated in 1998. Now the development team feels that the
project can leave the lab and be developed as a product.
Viable MRam chips are expected to appear in 2002 and could be
commercially available in 2004. There are still many unanswered
questions such as whether the chips will be price competitive with
electronic Ram and how easily they can be manufactured in volume.
Even IBM admits that it could be 10 years before the chips are
commonplace.
Canon recently announced a screen technology based on toners
rather than liquid crystal which the company hopes will result in
paper-thin, colour screens by 2007. If the company succeeds in its
aims, the screen could be an ideal companion for MRam.
The screens are made from flexible plastic plates with toner
in-between and has distinct similarities to laser printer
principles based on electrostatic charges. The thinness of the
screens means that they could be rolled up or fitted to contoured
surfaces.
In operation, the displayed image "freezes" when the electricity
source is disconnected, but the image will persist and still be
viewable. This does away with the need to refresh the screen many
times in a second, as dictated by current technologies, and savings
in power consumption could double or treble battery life for any
mobile device.
The technology is of particular interest to developers of
electronic book (e-book) hardware and for other applications where
the screen does not change for long periods of time - even the idea
of having wall-hanging pictures that can change to suit your mood
or the time of day have been mooted.
In the world of fashion, textiles are playing their part in
changing hardware into daywear with several companies working on
ways to weave electronic wires into fabric. The designs being shown
are ultra-modern fashions but the actual products that result are
likely to be work clothes, particularly for hands-free operations
in unfriendly or enclosed environments such as space exploration or
deep-sea diving.
Wires are becoming less relevant with the appearance of
Bluetooth and other wireless standards. This has opened the way for
wristwatches, rings, brooches and earrings to act as networked
devices. Visitors to the Hollywood Bowl in California will be met
by ushers wearing a scanning ring that checks the ticket and
validates it. Earrings seem to be proving popular to replace in-ear
headsets - though most designs are bulky.
You may already be able to tell something about a person by the
way they dress but soon you may be asking yourself what are their
clothes telling them about me?