Interesting People mailing list archives
Farber's New Years Editorial
From: David Farber <farber () central cis upenn edu>
Date: Sat, 31 Dec 1994 17:44:45 -0500
Move It or Lose It Professor David Farber The Alfred Fitler Moore Professor of Telecommunication Systems University of Pennsylvania 200 S. 33 rd Street Philadelphia PA 19104-6389 farber () cis upenn edu Four years ago the United States undertook a pioneering activity in the exploration of gigabit technology. This activity grew out of a National Research Council study which suggested, as part of the move towards the National Research and Educational Network (NREN), research designed to explore the impact of gigabit transmission speeds on networking, applications, and computer architecture. The research program has been a great success. Not only have we gained a deeper understanding of the impact of high speed technology on protocols, computer architecture, applications, and system architecture, but our success has motivated research establishments in Japan, Singapore, the European Union, Sweden, Australia, and others to undertake similar explorations. Ultra-high-speed networking is taking off around the world. Unfortunately, just as we are developing a much better appreciation of the problems as well as finding ourselves competing in an active international research environment, our resolve is beginning to flag. We are beginning to see U.S. reactions to gigabit research ranging from, "we don't need a gigabit network," to "we don't see the applications yet," to "can't we get by funding 155 megabits?," as I have recently noted in an editorial for the ERCIM newsletter. Were it not for the fact that we have stirred up the juices of gigabit research in other nations, this might not be completely unreasonable -- although to my mind, it would be unwise. If we cease to move forward at this critical time we stand a very good chance of losing our technological leadership in the next century. Our pioneering efforts will transfer to Europe and Asia with them reaping the commercial benefits of high speed technology. I am reminded of the days leading up to the supercomputer initiative, when people were saying, "why do you need such big machines? Why can't we experiment on slower, cheaper machines?" Our scientific and political leadership at that time saw the advantage to the nation of leaping out in front. It would be unfortunate and inappropriate if our leadership at this critical stage, having defined the direction of the national and global information infrastructure, does not have the courage to follow the path we blazed for the supercomputer revolution. We are at a critical point in gigabit networking. Unless we continue and expand ultra-high-speed activities we will lose the momentum of industry and academia. We will lose the ability to train a new generation of communication engineers, and, in my mind, we will have failed the next generation of U.S. scientists and entrepreneurs. If the U.S. isn't going to be ready for the 21st century, the rest of the world will be.
Current thread:
- Farber's New Years Editorial David Farber (Dec 31)