David Gelernter's romance with Linda
Article Abstract:
Companies may be able to network workstations together in an office environment and create systems that rival the power of any supercomputer, simultaneously lowering costs. David Gelernter's Linda programming language is the basis for this kind of distributed or parallel processing. IBM wants to lure companies away from supercomputer vendors such as Cray by offering networked workstation architectures that offer the same processing power as supercomputers at a greatly reduced cost. IBM actively seeks business from oil industry companies and researchers at Lawrence Livermore Laboratories. Other operations working with distributed processing include Wall Street brokers, telecommunications companies and aeronautical research firms. Ray Dream Inc showcases Apple Macintosh products that draw on the same technology for networked power. Some critics, however, worry that security issues will arise as more networking takes the place of a single supercomputer.
Publication Name: The New York Times
Subject: News, opinion and commentary
ISSN: 0362-4331
Year: 1992
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High hurdles await interactive TV
Article Abstract:
At the 42d annual National Cable Television Assoc trade show, there was a lot of excitement about the dawning of the age of digital television, but computer industry insiders warn that the cable tv industry has to hurdle reliability, security and service issues before it can effectively evolve into interactive tv. One possible mishap can be caused by attempts to integrate hardware and software components made by various manufacturers. A poorly written program can crash interactive tv. Furthermore, weak demand in test markets may cause the industry to retreat despite predictions that consumers are hungry for interactive and 500-channel systems. Compatibility and security concerns are major obstacles that may be overcome by using data coding technology that prevents information theft.
Publication Name: The New York Times
Subject: News, opinion and commentary
ISSN: 0362-4331
Year: 1993
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