Although the title of our article addresses engineering limits, we do not mean to convey a grim outlook. Over the past 20 years, the technology of computer systems has advanced dramatically in terms of performance, cost and reliability. There is every reason to expect this advance to continue, at a rate almost as shocking as we have experienced to date. However, the advance already achieved has pushed the mechanisms of switching, storage and communication close enough to fundamental physical limits to bring into awareness for the first time limitations in the engineering of high‐performance systems.

Topics
Educational assessment, Outreach, Computer systems
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© 1984 American Institute of Physics.
1984
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