Moore's Law: Fast, Cheap Computing and What It Means for the Manager
Introduction
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
- Define Moore's Law and understand the approximate rate of advancement for other technologies, including magnetic storage (disk drives) and telecommunications (fiber-optic transmission).
- Understand how the price elasticity associated with faster and cheaper technologies opens new markets, creates new opportunities for firms and society, and can catalyze industry disruption.
- Recognize and define various terms for measuring data capacity.
- Consider the managerial implication of faster and cheaper computing on areas such as strategic planning, inventory, and accounting.
Faster and cheaper - those two words have driven the computer industry for decades, and the rest of the economy has been along for the ride. Today it's tough to imagine a single industry not impacted by more powerful, less expensive computing. Faster and cheaper puts mobile phones in the hands of peasant farmers, puts a free video game in your Happy Meal, and drives the drug discovery that may very well extend your life.
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