Yep its another thread with me, your host, braggin about some theory I madeu p in my mind. But hey, I receive neutral response so ill try again with somthing else I found.

ABout 6 months or so ago I belive I saw a new article on PR about the future of computers being based on a single chip - everyhting was integrated and to upgrade an entire system - you simply replaced that chip. This is just talk and a possible future. The way things are looking, its not far off. Heres 3 examples that are readily availible:

Exhibit one: generic mini atx motherboard



its ecs, i know, but current flaming in another thread will have to be ignored. This first example shows a summary of things happening in the trends of hardware. the graphics card, a dominant feature in almost all computers is integrated and reoves a need for one to acutally be there. ofcourse theres IDE connectors, USB, the backplate IO. thses really wernt integrated as such untill the dawn of ATX. I'll remind you these 3 examples are simply to show what integration there is at present.

Exhibit 2: the via epia series
form the normal motherboard point of view, things have changed. This is moving more to the area that i wish to discuss. Things are much smaller in this motherboards case, and the integration trend had taken a good bite. The CPU is soldered on, and sound graphics, lan, usb, tv out etc etc is all there, all that is needed is some memory and this motherboard good do POST.

Exhibit 3: The athlon 64:


this is very close to the area in mind - single chip integration takes its first step here with the memory controler inside the chip. memory data transfer waiting times were dropped considerably, this seen more with the 939 socket compared to the 462 rather than the 754 or 940 (for timing and channel reasons).

The main focus: The Cyrix Media GX chip:

well this is it - the future of full integration is an old idea - summed up in this little number. The GX series was sound video and cpu integrated (memory controller unknown). It marked the utter destruction of cyrix, but did give them a short market in the laptop sector as these chips reduced the space required by mainboards considerably. I would have loved to have a play around with this chip - see what it was capable of.

My conclusion is that if this full integration theory is to take place, the company that does it first will have to tread lightly - its a tricky business.

Thanks to all that have read and i look forward to your comments.
Oli.

you might want to go to mini-itx.com you might see some computers as small as a watch, yes they are there you just have to look for them!!!!

While ther is potential for such systems (basic workstations, kiosks and basic data terminals), many users (the people paying for these systems and thus keeping the developers alive) won't go for the lack of upgrade paths.... I sure wouldn't. I, as well as many others, upgrade select components as is needed and the cash available.

Hell, if you want a system with extremely limited upgradability, try Apple.... Mr. Jobs HATES upgradability. I'm actually surprised he didn't implement this a long time ago just to force people to buy new hardware.... don't get me wrong, their systems look nice and the OS runs quite well (I even owned a few), but the negatives are just too many in my book.

Now a more unified system using chips which can be independantly upgraded.... such as a full vid card in one chip, etc.... well, then I'd be interested.

some points to remember....

-the only things that get integrated into mainstream and high end motherboards are devices that usually serve one purpose and / or are not required to work beyond a specification...

your onboard LAN, Serial and Paralell, PS2, IDE, Floppy, and USB...

the above are staples for modern computing, and their standards dont necessitate a great deal of change, however...

CPU, Audio and Video.....

are not, many servers run without display adapters, and many more run without audio...

you may see the integration of these into some systems, or the OEM systems, but the future of computing isnt defined by your 2 year old gateway with a totally integrated mainboard, or a brand new Dell laptop with no option of upgrading your gpu later on...the parts that define the computers performance the most are usually the ones that are not integrated, in other words, audio, video, and cpu...and yes, people demand that these parts be replaceable, and ill explain why in one sec...

...we are the future of computing, right here, right now, we are the only real dramatic change that the architecture and methodology of computing has taken in well over 10 years (and no, laptop does not count, they are usually built to try and emulate their desktop counterparts as much as possible and their technology is always watered down versions of said desktops)...odd isnt it, we used to only exist in BBS or newsgroups, with out overclocked and hacked 486SX's with math coprocessors enabled by hand , guess where our community is now, friends.....mainstream, from tricked out cases to exotic cooling to processor benchmark drag races, we are no longer a sub-culture, and you only have the steady progression of the said technology to blame, computers today are no more integrated than they were in the 80s, because even then, alot of the integrated things were still considered luxuries somewhat...

i remember a day when upgrading a cpu was a task that only the most savvy technician would undertake, and before that day, a cpu could possibly involve using a soldering iron to replace...now you have a convinient zif socket that basically does the work for you, is this integration?

i remember proprietary systems that would only accept one type of ram, or operating systems that were terrible with asigning resources to devices on your VESA-LB or ISA devices, and jumpers to make anything work, now you put it in, turn it on, and enjoy, when yer done, yank it out, is this integration?

i remember when systems had compatability issues that went WAYYYY beyond the ideology of "gee, i cant overclock my ram beyond 5 trillion boogerhertz, this ram is incompatible with this mainboard"...is this integration?

i remember when a new part for your home computer was a business decision and not a luxury or an impulse purchase....is this integration?

i dont think the future is integration, no more than i did 5 years ago when you still NEEDED to have a USB add-on card for your then 5 year old gateway that only had 1 PCI slot....

and f*ck the french....

EDIT: who...in the 80's...would have thought that in 20 years, computers would come prebuilt with neon lights inside....and glowing case badges?

they were as clueless as we are...because in 20 years from now, history will repeat itself...surely....

Excellent post Fu3l!!! Excellent on all points! Definitely making me feel old as I remember every bit of it...

Damn, now I got an itch to create some old fashioned ASCII screens!

wanna see the direction things are going, take a look at Stereomods computer, and then look at the one sitting at your side, you will have the basic idea after that.....

Bravo my brutha!!
Outstanding insite, as to the future, viewed from back then.
I belive we are the leading edge of what is to come.
The industry can't package it up into one nice tidy end all.
How will the evolution continue like it has since the begining, that got us here?
I would just love to see into the future say 25yrs,
and see who's running who then...

id rather keep everything semi modular. but then again if you look at mac users they end up repaceing the whole machine all at once eventualy. but i guess if you can make it cheap enough and fast enough you could have a single chip with good performance. we do kind of have do everyhting chips but they dont deliver radeon graphics.