Project Telecom: Technologies

(This page was last modified January 18, 1997.)

Hardware Trends

If the computer industry's current trends continue, today's high-priced technology will become available to casual users in just a few years. Three years ago, for example, a 60 MHz computer system with 8 Megabytes of RAM and a 200 Meg hard drive was beyond the pocketbook of most home users. Today, anything less that 170 MHz, 32 MB, and 2 GB is considered under-powered. In another five to ten years it's reasonable to expect that:

A home computer with capabilities to efficiently create complicated publications and transmit them to the Internet will cost less than $1000. (Even better deals will be available on used equipment.)
Competition among Internet Service Providers and alliances with other businesses will make home Internet access as common as telephones are today.
The problem with significant delays in accessing Web pages or transmitting large files will have been addressed. (However, there will be a corresponding increase in the complexity of Web pages to take advantage of the new bandwidth.)
Color printers will be considered a normal part of an average home system.
As computers connected to the Internet become common, the mystery of using them will diminish due to simpler interfaces.

Common Publishing Format

One problem with current Web publishing technologies is the page looks quite different depending upon which browser is used to view it. Column layout changes depending upon how wide the user makes the screen. The fonts and sizes used to display text may be quite different from the ones used in creating it. This difference in presentation format is important to publishers who work hard to get things looking "just right."

Today, some sites prepare their documents using a language more precise than the Web's HTML (Hyper-Text Markup Language). Adobe's PostScript ("PS") allows documents to be saved in a format that can be reproduced on any printer that supports the PostScript language. Typically, the publisher uses a sophisticated word processor or desktop publishing program to enter and layout text and graphics, then prints the result to a specialized driver that creates the final file.

Several products go beyond PostScript, providing Web-friendly tools to create and display documents. Three of these are Adobe's Acrobat ("PDF"), Hummingbird's Common Ground ("DP"), and Tumbleweed's Envoy ("ENV").

These files cannot be displayed by Web browsers directly, but "plug-in" display programs are commonly available for a variety of computers.

Go to the AAPA Project Telecom home page.

Dave Tribby / tribby@cup.hp.com