January 5th, 2007 Curt Monash
SanDisk is pushing a 32-gig flash disk that costs multiple hundreds of dollars more than a large hard drive. (Here’s The Register’s take on it.) One figure they cite is a 100-fold+ improvement in access speed. The speed difference between disk and silicon, of course, is something I’ve focused on in my research into memory-centric data management, and also in some of the work on data warehouse appliances as well. They are proposing this as the entire fixed memory for laptops. And in a much cheaper vein, Nicholas Negroponte is proposing a diskless architecture for the 100-dollar laptop.
But to me, the really interesting future here is PCs with removable persistent solid-state storage. I wrote about the subject a year ago, and I just want to take this opportunity to remind people that’s it’s a desirable and not-implausible way for personal computing and consumer electronics to evolve. If the storage part of the system can be separated out, what you’re left with is mainly the human-facing I/O and the processing power to drive that. So from where I sit, portable external storage could drive an explosion in interesting and useful electronic device form factors.
Posted in Diskless PCs, Hardware | 2 Comments »
January 3rd, 2007 Curt Monash
I chatted with VMware today about virtualization, virtual appliances, and so on. But first we covered some basics:
- VMware quotes a figure of 20,000 enterprise customers, if you count everybody who is at least testing the software and so on; i.e., it’s a somewhat inflated figure. Still, the “real” number is surely big.
- They claim ¼ of those have a “VMware first” policy, to deploy new apps on a virtual rather than dedicated machine. That’s impressive until you realize enterprise try to roll their own apps as rarely as possible these days.
- They suggest VMware is extremely helpful at times you’d like to have two copies of the same platform – e.g., for development, or when you have to take the system down for brief maintenance. It’s hard to argue with that claim.
- We didn’t have the time to talk about my performance concerns.
As for how this all plays with appliances and SaaS – that’s largely a future, but potentially a very interesting one. Here’s what I mean.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Computing appliances, EMC and VMware, Hardware, Platforms, Software as a service, Startup ideas, Virtualization | 3 Comments »
July 28th, 2006 Curt Monash
Richard Brandt asked me to look over his post on the oft-rumored possibility of a Google PC. I actually opined on this back in January, when the rumors were rife in connection with a supposed Wal-Mart sales/marketing agreement. I concluded that that would make a lot of sense for internet connectivity and student/homework uses (I didn’t consider work-at-home or gaming uses because that didn’t seem a good fit with Wal-Mart). The reasoning I came up with back then looks good in retrospect, with only minor tweaks (e.g., my new reason for not worrying about IE-only websites is the IE emulation capability in Firefox).
Richard, however, goes further, thinking that Google could succeed in PCs used mainly to run word processing, spreadsheets, etc.. His arguments include:
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Posted in Google, Hardware, Online and mobile services, Privacy, censorship, and freedom, Public policy and privacy, Software as a service | 6 Comments »
July 21st, 2006 Curt Monash
Virtualization is in many ways pure goodness, just as proponents say. But even so, I think it’s being overhyped. As software, hardware, and processor vendors all get larger, economies of scale are allowing very tight development coupling so as to optimize performance, power usage, etc. For example, I’m running into Intel engineers at almost every large company I follow. If you buy software — and who builds their own if they don’t have to? — you’re now likely to get something that’s been carefully optimized for very specific operating environments. And then there are appliances, which are still trending up, not down. (See also what Stuart Frost of DATallegro has to say on that point.) Or check out this ostensibly pro-virtualization article that really is in agreement with me. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Hardware | 1 Comment »
July 20th, 2006 Curt Monash
I’ve been beating the drum for flash-drive-based diskless PCs for a while (see earlier posts in this section). Computerworld now reports that In-Stat says these PCs could take over half the laptop market by 2013.
Of course, that kind of market research study is not to be taken seriously, at least in its detailed dates and numbers. But of interest is the #1 benefit to flash drives cited in a survey they did, because it’s one I hadn’t focused on before — lower power consumption.
What I’ve been talking about is a grand change in personal computing, with removable flash drives replacing hard drives, and being carried from device to device. Laptops with fixed flash drives may be a key step on the path toward that future.
Posted in Diskless PCs, Hardware | No Comments »
July 15th, 2006 Curt Monash
Nick Carr and Jonathon Schwartz are predicting the death (or at least decline) of special-purpose computing appliances. Their reasons, so far as I can tell, are pretty much threefold:
- Vendors have economies of scale making general-purpose computers.
- Users have economies of scale running homogenous, general-purpose computers.
- Virtualization will work.
But when one thinks a little bit about what’s really driving the use of appliances, those arguments fall apart.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Computing appliances, Hardware, Platforms, Private companies, Ventures, Virtualization | 1 Comment »
June 22nd, 2006 Curt Monash
My gut feeling is that Intel is coming back from its multiyear product inferiority vs. AMD. This ZDnet article lays out the case in much more detail than I could, but I have two observations to add:
1. There’s no reason Intel shouldn’t be able to leapfrog AMD. Permanent loss of market leads tends to be due to factors such as platform shifts or incurable code bloat; none of those seem to be present in the case of microprocessors.
2. For a while, I’ve been dealing with software and appliance vendors that like Intel because they’re paid to like Intel, via various kinds of marketing arrangements. But over the last few months, the liking has begun to sound a lot more sincere.
Disclosure: Intel is a co-sponsor of two of my white papers. Wiseasses might suggest that my point #2 above is therefore actually somewhat recursive in its reasoning.
Posted in Hardware | 1 Comment »
April 20th, 2006 Curt Monash
I’ve argued that Flash-based “diskless” PCs would offer major improvements in security. On the other hand, evidence from US military installations in the Middle East suggests than Flash drives are actually a major security hole.
Can these views be reconciled? I think so. The answer, simply, is that Flash drives need embedded RFID chips (or some substitute technology) so that their movements can be detected and controlled.
“But wait!”, you cry. “Doesn’t that mean anybody who legitimately carries a secure Flash drive around can have her movements nefariously tracked?” Well yes, it does, but that genie is out of the bottle anyway. We just have to deal with it on another level.
Technorati Tags: Flash, security, privacy, RFID
Posted in Diskless PCs, Hardware, Privacy, censorship, and freedom, Public policy and privacy, Security and anti-spam | No Comments »
March 16th, 2006 Curt Monash
The possibilities for getting cheap PCs into developing countries keeps growing. The Register has a series of articles on the alternatives.
The machines are getting cheap enough that it’s not a question of whether they should be all over even the poorest countries, but rather exactly how this should be accomplished. Electricity is a non-issue in some cases, more of a challenge in others. And actual internet access of course also needs to be provided.
But in essence — a few years from now, every schoolchild in the world should have access to most of the world’s educational information.
Except to the extent, of course, that her country’s leaders censor it out …
Posted in Economic development, Hardware, Public policy and privacy | No Comments »
March 16th, 2006 Curt Monash
Keeping data on laptops secure against theft of the laptops is a nightmare.
But the diskless PC is a strong answer. Then all you have to keep secure is a small data module. Not only is that much easier because of the physical form factor, but it also is vastly easier to encrypt.
Yes, I’m repeating myself.
Posted in Diskless PCs, Hardware | 1 Comment »