For three decades, growth and progress have been the dominant themes of the computer industry. New technologies have emerged, grown, and been replaced, generating an unending stream of excitement. Careers and fortunes have been made. Three decades seems like forever - but it isn't. Other fields have shown us that exponential growth is followed by consolidation and steady but slower progress.
That is life at the top of the S-curve. If the computer industry has reached the top, a different set of expectations and a different set of technology targets are appropriate for the next decades. We will discuss targets and strategies for innovation in this new environment.
During his 30-year career in the computer industry, Randy was one of the developers of the ARPANET and early Internet, architect of the Butterfly Parallel Processor, and finally, CTO of Sun Microsystem's storage division. He now works on Synthetic Biology at the AI Lab.