Get ready, there is a revolution coming. No it is not something where you have to worry about getting injured or overthrowing some powerful entity, it is a computer revolution. Up to now, all computers had to reload their operating systems and programs when they were turned on. This will soon be a thing of the past. Thanks to research being carried out in Spain and the U.S., the size of MRAMs will be greatly increased. So what is a MRAM? It is Magnetoresistive Random Access Memory. Think of it another way, it is memory that will retain all it's data even when the computer is turned off, so that as soon as you turn on the machine it is ready to roll. No more waiting for Windows to load up and then all those startup programs that seem to take forever. So what makes MRAM different than all the other types of memory on your computer and how can it retain data when your machine is turned off? There is a very simple answer to this. All your ram, or memory, on your computer relies on electricity. Turn off the current and you lose all memory. This is not true for any type of flash ram, but this type of ram wears out. We are talking about the type of memory that you use in cameras and some PDAs (pocket sized computers). It is different with MRAM. MRAM is magnetic. Once it is magnetized with data, that magnetism stays there whether the machine is on or not.

I think that we are all starting to see the improvement in hard drives. The space available on the drives is going way up and the prices are going way down. This is just great news for the consumer. It has made it possible to get a cheap computer with a decent amount of space, that allows you to put software programs you want on the drive along with data of different types. Can we expect these drives to just keep getting more storage room? No, recent reports state that while they will get more space on them, we can expect to see solid state drives replacing the mechanical ones somewhere in the relatively near future. Right now the problem is that even though solid storage devices are getting bigger, they still wear out. They have to be made in such a way that as part of them wear out, an internal program shifts the data to good areas. Eventually the storage space will shrink to an unusable size. We are talking about Compact Flash Memory, Secure Digital Memory and Memory Sticks.

All computers require an interface of one kind or another if we are going to be able to put in data and retrieve it. Most of us will use a keyboard to accomplish this task. For years there has been talk of using a speech recognition system rather than this keyboard. For those of you that remember the movie 2001 A Space Odyssey, you will remember that the astronauts on the spaceship talked to their computer, rather than type messages. We all know that there is software available to allow us to communicate with certain software programs and also software that will read text. While it is improving, it still means you have to teach the software to understand you words by repeating a word over and over. The problem with trying to use it to access the operating system of a computer is that there is still a word error rate. What this means is that a few words, not many, will not be understood or mistaken for other words. One might mumble and confuse the computer or change the tone of their voice. Until the word error rate is reduced to zero, the software for accessing all the functions of a computer will not be good enough.

Computer Interface
Photo Source: NASA

Now it all depends how far you want to go to be one with your computer. It is possible today to control a computer using only your thoughts. To do this requires some sort of interface with your brain. It could be a chip that allows you to plug into the computer or some sort of brain wave amplifier that would allow you to send your brain waves to a nearby computer to be picked up by a receiver and converted to instructions by the computer. These are usually not very good and have produced poor signals. They are known as non invasive BCIs. A BCI is a Brain Computer Interface. Some BCIs allow two way communication between the computer and the person. As you can imagine, this is most helpful right now to those people who are suffering from medical problems that don't allow them to use the traditional methods for communicating with a computer. Who knows, someday we may just think and the computer might just do.

Your computer will not be the only thing that is going to get a great technological boost. Your monitor is due for a change. Flat panels are just starting to become the norm in computer viewing. A couple of years ago the crt or Cathode Ray Tube monitor was the most popular and there are still quite a few of them around today, but even the flat panel is about to face a challenge. A new 3D monitor is due out in about two years. Ah, you say you don't want to have to wear glasses all day, but don't worry because glasses won't be needed to see this remarkable three dimensional view. I know that all you game players out there will be thrilled with this thing, but it will also be very handy for the rest of us. Think of it, how would you like to look at your family photos in three dimensions? I am sure you would love it. If you like to draw you will also be able to do that three dimensionally. As a matter of fact, I am sure that you will find many uses for this devise. So how will it work? There will be a sort of grove running down the monitor every so often that will allow the human eye to get three different views of the same screen, thus fooling us into seeing in 3D. Due out in about 10 years after this, is the first holographic display. It is said that this will produce a scene right in the middle of your living room into empty space. This is a little too far in the future to really know much about it.

Looking in the very far future, scientists are working on Quantum computers. They work with very small parts of matter, matter that is so small that if you watch the matter while doing a calculation it changes the result. Don't ask, I never could understand this facet of it either. These computers, if perfected, would make today's computers looks like a joke, but will common people ever get one? This is one thing that I am not sure about. The reason for my uncertainty is the fact that I am sure the government will want to protect everything that they consider of national interest with codes created by quantum computers, since it is highly unlikely that they will be able to be broken, at least by others without access to these machines. Another avenue for creating new computers is genes. Some see living things, such as plants, being turned into computers. How would you like to ask question of your rubber plant and get answers?

Well for now I guess we will have to be happy with improvements in our standard computer systems, which are turning out to be quite proficient anyway. They have already reached the level that allow them to perform almost any task that one would need to do to facilitate writing, banking, gaming along with audio, video and photo viewing. The average guy or gal already has a machine that allows them to do everything they want. It is only us power hungry nerds that never seem to be satisfied. Sure I want more and I am proud of it and the good part is, more is always coming down the road.