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Result: The Decline of Computers as a General Purpose Technology.

Title:
The Decline of Computers as a General Purpose Technology.
Authors:
THOMPSON, NEIL C.1 neil_t@mit.edu, SPANUTH, SVENJA2 sspanuth@ethz.ch
Source:
Communications of the ACM. Mar2021, Vol. 64 Issue 3, p64-72. 9p. 1 Color Photograph, 1 Diagram, 1 Chart, 3 Graphs.
Subject Terms:
*EXPERTISE, COMPUTERS & society, COMPUTER engineering, CENTRAL processing units, MICROPROCESSORS
Database:
Business Source Premier

Further Information

The article explores how as of early 2021 technological and economic forces are pushing computing away from general purpose and toward specialization. The term general purpose technology (GBT) was coined for products like computers that have broad technical applicability and where product improvement and market growth could fuel one another. The author also describes how as improvements in central processing units (CPUs) slow, and thus applications move to specialized processors, graphics processing units (GPUs) are becoming more specialized.