Laserfiche WebLink
TKCHSOLOGY <br />The Highway <br />to the Future <br />Thanks to fiber optics, the United States has <br />broken ground for a comj)uter expressway <br />JH ith a modem, a teleph< r.e <br />and a hit of a Liii wind, the text <br />of this stop, t rave Uni frnrnti.d <br />veston, Texas, to N»* v Y<»rk <br />City in just over two rnmuti^*. <br />It’s an amazini; feat made pros;iic onl v t)\ <br />its ret^larity But it’s al.so vesterd.iy .s <br />technology The future apparently will hi* <br />measured in —1 billion hits of <br />data, roughly a 2t>volume encyclop«*dia <br />which can move acrt)ss the land in hare I v <br />a second. With that speed and acc(>npariy- <br />ing power, scientists and schcKils. hnme^ <br />and hospitals could ail conm*cteo ;n <br />one massive computer network Then K. <br />erynia'’, and his sister, the phv'.ioist. wi i <br />be able to dip into an>Thing from the* <br />stacks of Harvard Yard to the vidfHj ar <br />chives of the Home Shopping .Network <br />AH of that wall b** possible when the I Tilt­ <br />ed States builds what ha.s come Ih» <br />known i\s a data highway, a Idvr-^iptic <br />spinal cord its proponents prom;s«* will do <br />for the nation s economy and lifeslvie <br />what the interstate highw.ay system did <br />for America in the 1950s <br />Just before Christmas. Washington t.M»K <br />the first step toward building this highway <br />when Congress pcLssed and President Bu.-'h <br />signed the $3 billion High-Performance <br />Computing Act The money will h*’ used ti' <br />develop and install computer hardware <br />that will help propel data among the na ­ <br />tion’s more than a dozim leading resear«;h <br />centers. For the most part the highway w ill <br />run along fiber-optic cable already laid by <br />the centers, teiephone companies and gov ­ <br />ernment agencies The pure-gl:is.s fila ­ <br />ments in the cable can carry much more <br />data tin the form of light pulses* at higher <br />speed, than conventional wire I'he con ­ <br />nected centers will form the first pieces of <br />the National Research and Exiucation Net­ <br />work iNREN^ According to S#*n .\lCjor»*of <br />Tennessee, the principal .^|xmsor of the <br />dati-highwav idea, the .N’RKN ’’wiil revolu ­ <br />tionize almost every facet of business ami <br />commerce and communication in the ^ 'nit <br />I'd States " .Nut mcidentiily, he MUis. Tt <br />56 N y w s w r > K : \\ h > . : • •: <br />A •; .? . w i** *-.ii ‘r C * * M • *'■ *•.- and <br />*f'»- r.vre —«• wr \:*‘ ’p.ng <br />n»*t-A-•TK*'o* •.ne;^ i\Kr. r •'»'-! W.*,-'C irten. <br />g Mf'c Ib^- <br />h A n :a'. -n. igr»*»— A • *hat <br />.nfrastruv tur“ r J'.'-t * *rv re <br />going ’n a •. ’..l^s <br />Tb»* »o‘w n»*fw. T K > »*\ - ippi.int <br />tfe’ w*‘h sr. w is th»‘ <br />New Worlds <br />Moving at the <br />Speed of Light <br />M a.'^t amounts oi d.it.i wi.i ‘Iv <br />W .ilong \ •ii’’wi r\ <br />f fiN*r-‘H’.c cable, rr, m - g <br />;»<)S'i e major rnang'*- * <br />•a:i\ tnu n.iiiun cn:Ma.*.N <br />n5 <br />, AT HOME: *' r <br />I'^Customers'cAif focus <br />their frtformatlon needs — ‘ <br />tT'^ciiStoffl'-brderlrtO hews, <br />tT^liAhfvlchs, even television <br />programmlng-Heltha <br />Ifitrrr.ft That'iv ‘item grew 'fcom.pul- <br />«*r unking exper.rr.ent.s of the It n«'>w <br />cunnect.s thou.<ami.‘< uf cempu'er networks <br />.«ipread 'ver >5 countru'<i: mor«* th.in 2 mil­ <br />lion users go on I me each day Thevu.seiito • <br />piLSs me^^agt^. to br<^wse through bulletin | <br />i>>ards that report the latest news in their <br />fields and even to run experiments on com ­ <br />puters that be xrean.s aw.iv <br />SoftirarB robots: What will *he new net- <br />worK. olfer that the old cannut' In .i word, <br />Ttxiay ’s Internet dot^^ ,i g'vxi job of <br />p;\ssing text around, hut such daui-heavy <br />item.s a.s whole b<;x:)ks and fuil-molion vidfK) <br />take prohiDitiveiy long to tran.smit NREN <br />tratfic will /axmi along at a hundred times <br />tcKjav ’scommon Internet spew'd With a big­ <br />ger. faster pipxdine. .>tudents could search <br />through tile I.ibrarv of (Aing'r»‘vs. f.irmers <br />cou: i re:ul di'ta.leii ge^^gr-irtucai maps <br />from satei!;tr* ntionw h-r r p data .-\nd <br />•S-AVsr*»