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HP Outlines Future Vision at 40th Anniversary of HP Labs
PALO ALTO, Calif --(Business Wire)-- Feb. 21, 2006 HP (NYSE:HPQ)(Nasdaq:HPQ) today announced a year-long observation of the 40th anniversary of HP Labs, the company's central research organization, and outlined an ambitious, far-reaching vision for the future of information and communications technology.
That future could include:
- Worldwide, connected, continuous, secure computing through virtually unstaffed, automated data centers;
- Bringing the power of digital technology to commercial printing, and creating ubiquitous, low-power, low-cost, lightweight displays that could convey multimedia information in formats as small as a wrist watch or as large as wallpaper.
- Advances in computing technology that could extend Moore's Law beyond the limits of classical physics and provide a quantum leap in performance, reliability and security, vastly improving information and communications services in business, education, medicine, government and daily life.
"Forty years ago, few imagined personal computers, the Internet, the World Wide Web and inexpensive color printers or cameras that operated without film," Lampman said. "HP Labs researchers were among those who did and who worked, in fundamental ways, to help create the world we enjoy today."
HP Labs is working on improving future information and communications technology in several major areas:
- Reinventing the Economics of IT: The long-range goal is a worldwide network of massive, secure, energy-efficient data centers that automatically allocate resources to users, based on market demand.
"Joel Birnbaum was one of the first to articulate the vision of utility computing - where customers use only the resources they need and pay just for what they use - when he was HP Labs director in the late '80s," said John Sontag, director, data center architecture and virtualization, HP Labs. "Today, HP is a leader in the effort to make that vision a reality."
- The Future of Imaging and Printing: HP, the acknowledged world leader in home and office printing, is exploring the potential to digitize all types of publishing - from brochures to periodicals to billboards. In addition, HP Labs is working on continued improvements in digital photography, video and projection; automatic publication composition; and future display technologies.
"We're working to revolutionize the world of commercial printing with digital technology, just as we did with personal printing," said John Meyer, director, Digital Printing and Imaging Lab, HP Labs. "We are also studying paper-like electronic materials for portable information devices. These kinds of materials also could work for a wall display and you could change the decor of your home as often as you liked."
- Disruptive Technologies: HP scientists are exploring the realm of quantum computing to extend advances in semiconductor technology into the future.
"The researchers in our Quantum Science Research and Information Theory organizations are making breakthroughs not only in the underlying science, but the architecture and fabrication technologies that will enable an entirely new generation of computing," said Phil Kuekes, senior scientist and computer architect, Quantum Science Research, HP. "We expect these changes to continue the tradition of 'better, faster, cheaper' for decades to come and to provide applications in the future that - just like the Internet and digital photography 40 years ago - we can only dimly imagine today."
BJ, what's this got to do with Microvision?
ReplyDeleteit is important to understand the macro picture of changes in technology when evaluating Microvision or any other technology company.
ReplyDeletethe year 2006 does not represent the culmination of change in technology but is a stepping stone to a near future where many of the ideas that HP Labs is talking about will be fully realized.
obviously I expect Microvision to participate in these 'vastly improved information and communications services' as the critical conduit from the network to the user.
You make things sound too complicated, in fact they're not, they're much simpler than that. Sure things are connected, but remember, the landscape changes ALL the time. That means we CANNOT wait for convergence to happen, we need to evolve and adapt AS changes happen. This means we need to "merge with the traffic" NOW. This means we need to take our innovative "future tech" and solve today's practical problems. It's a no-brainer to me that if Microvision introduced a full color RSD display at a competitve price, we'd be a money machine. With that money, we could adapt WITH the market. Instead, we have a monochrome Nomad. You can take this to the bank: Microvision will be a household name if they can bring full color miniature RSD displays to the consumer markets.
ReplyDeletethese are all good points and I agree with most of them. the important thing to consider is that even with a full color miniature RSD display for consumers, there will need to be content and infrastructure around it so that it can provide value to the user.
ReplyDeletethis is why I keep posting stuff that has to do with advances in internet infrastructure, grid computing, etc. because it's always going to come down to the value of the consumer experience.
content, applications, infrastructure, user value.
agree about merging with the traffic. also think it's important to understand where people like Gates and HP Labs are moving to.
thanks for the comment.