InformationWeek

Future of the PC: Peripherals Transformed

By Terry Bailey, a senior VP at NEC Technologies Inc. in Boxborough, Mass.

ake a long look at your desktop, and you'll see the ubiquitous computer box with components tethered to it like a mobile. CPU, monitor, keyboard, printer, CD-ROM drive-they have an interdependent relationship. The peripherals would be nothing without the CPU, and the CPU would be nothing without the peripherals. Take away the monitor, and creating a document or a gr aphic would be impossible. Take away the keyboard, and you might as well try to write on the monitor with a pen.

It may be hard to envision a time when peripherals will no longer need the CPU; still, peripherals are getting smarter and handling tasks independently. Users now focus more on the peripheral, be it a CRT or LCD display, printer, or personal digital assistant. As this trend continues, the lines dividing computers and peripherals will blur in a convergence similar to what TV, video, audio, and computing are all experiencing. This second convergence of the digital age, as some have called it, will create a new category of computing machine: the tactile interface-a combination of touch, vision, and audio senses.

Getting to this future means understanding the past. In the early days of computing, there was a central mainframe with local text monitors and keyboards. Distributed computing put a relatively unnetworked CPU on every individual's desk. In the future, where the power resides may be u ndetermined due to the server-driven nature of network computers and the World Wide Web. What is certain is that smart peripherals, purpose-built devices, and tactile interfaces will be central.

In the past, as more and more people used computers, increased performance, greater ease of use, and ergonomic comforts were needed. Innovations such as LCD monitors, laser printers, graphical user interfaces, and CD-ROM drives satisfied this need for higher performance and greater usability. To help the CPU support all this technology, designers added intelligence and memory to peripherals, which increased their functionality. These "smart peripherals" assumed tasks once handled solely by the CPU.

From this historical perspective, we can project the next step, when peripherals will be completely separate from the centralized CPU. Peripherals will have their own onboard CPU, combining the function of both peripheral and CPU into one streamlined, dedicated, functional device.

Today, with multimedia capabi lities, the user manipulates voice, pictures, and video to create a new form of information. Hence, the tactile interface is a human-centered approach to information access.

Intelligent peripherals break away from the centralized CPU model and become digital appliances that are useful as standalone devices or appliances used in tandem. Digital cameras can capture images and sound, perform editing, and play back a presentation via a projector, all with no obvious computer present.

More examples will soon enter the marketplace. For example, a digital picture could be sent directly to a color printer for hard copy without involving a computer. Digital cameras, PDAs, and smart phones will spawn applications unique to the digital medium. Pictures will be as easily used as text is today.

These tactile-interface devices will be as simple to use as a toaster but as powerful as a TV or telephone. While these smart peripherals will serve their own unique purposes, they'll also link to the Internet, takin g that additional Web data and incorporating it into their own capabilities. To make this a reality, network architecture will need to become more robust and flexible to accommodate the vast variety of devices. The tactile interface will provide not only the truest representation of people's vision and imagination, but a clear reflection of the world around us.

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Read on about the "Future of the PC" from:

• Rich Raimondi , general manager of the business LaserJet division of Hewlett-Packard in Palo Alto, Calif.
  
• Robert Gilbertson , president and CEO of Network Computing Devices Inc. in Mountain View, CA
  
• Steve Luczo , executive VP of corporate development at Seagate Technology and chief operating officer at Seagate Software in Scotts Valley, CA
  
• Bill Raduchel , chief information officer of Sun Microsy stems in Mountain View, CA