Innovative PC Architecture Design

By Frank Levinson

January 6, 2003

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Along with other portions of the technology industry, microprocessor development companies are really struggling these days. There are a number of reasons for this, but one is a reduction in the innovation and creativity that put this industry on the map in the 1970s and 1980s.

Most of the new PC processor products we see today are simply a linear extrapolation of computing technology that was generally available 20 years ago. Very little is radically new in the microprocessor business.

The industry has created machines capable of crunching numbers faster than humans can use the results. Sure, there are weather simulations and atom bomb analyses that still need more horsepower (MIPs and MegaFLOPs). But sufficient computing speed is now available for 99 percent of all PC users.

The pursuit of speed has been based on feedback that the personal computer "feels better" when it works at a pace similar to our own. For example, if a computer takes too long to save work, we may not save as often as would be prudent. But if it is "fast enough," then we don't even mind if file saves happen automatically.

When PCs are intuitive and work together with users to amplify their own capabilities, users are happier and more willing to buy new systems. Many people bought Microsoft Windows because the graphical interface empowered them to do more work more intuitively with less training. Humans are visually oriented and systems with visual interfaces are easier to operate.

What is needed are machines that interact with humans to increase their productivity and allow them to be more innovative. Humans create when they make connections and links between seemingly unrelated information. They are also innovative when the palette they can paint from has more colors and more open-ended functions.

Priming the Pump of Innovation

Recently, we started collecting new ideas that could transform the way that the world computes, and bring personal computing back to a place where innovation can thrive and real progress can again drive the industry.

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