"Humanizing the Interface" Is the Challenge of the '90s
 
Copyright (c) 1989, McGraw-Hill, Inc.
SAN FRANCISCO (Microbytes Daily News Service) --- "How will new
microprocessors make a difference on desktops?" That was the
question posed to a panel of computer experts and industry
analysts at this week's Personal Computer Outlook conference
here. Certainly, computer hardware designers will continue to
devlop faster and faster CPUs, increasing the number of MIPS and
megaflops. But what will users do with all that processing power?
One solution is to go beyond the keyboard and mouse and create
computer interfaces that are truly revolutionary.
 
"I believe within 2 to 3 years we'll see single-chip 250-MIPS
processors available as improvements in CMOS and package
technologies continue," said Andrew Heller, of Kleiner Perkins
Caufield and Byers, a computer consulting firm. "At that kind of
power you start to think about humanization of the interface, not
just being user-friendly," he said. "We'll see things along the
line of improved speech and handwriting recognition, and
visualization."
 
Other panel members echoed these sentiments. Michael Homer,
Apple's director of product marketing, said that whether CPUs
operate at 25, 100, or 1000 MIPs, the challenge comes in
designing new interfaces, including continuous speech-recognition
and speech-synthesis capabilities. "The biggest issue won't be
how fast a computer can go, but how we can use that power to
improve communication with the system," he said.
 
As Chips and Technologies president Gordon Campbell sees it,
future compatibility at the CPU level is more important than
faster chips. In the long term, the computer industry will see a
"migration of commonality" among microprocessors and less
dependence on a particular architecture, be it Intel or Motorola,
Campbell said.
 
But not everyone sees CPU compatibility as the hot topic for the
'90s. Self-styled "software wizard" Andrew Hertzfeld, an original
member of the Macintosh engineering team, believes the next
decade will bring the computer industry an opportunity to create
advanced consumer-level products. "With dedicated controllers, I
think it doesn't matter at all if the CPU is Motorola- or Intel-
compatible, except to the extent that the development tools [for
those processors] are already there," Hertzfeld said.  "To me the
most interesting thing will be communicating with the user, the
user interface."
 
"Another interesting way to use all those MIPS is to interpret
what the user is going to do next,"  Hertzfeld said. "To try to
present the user with solutions instead of running through some
menu hierarchy."
 
                              --- Jeffrey Bertolucci
 
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