High-End Workstations
Kekoa Proudfoot



* In the future, there will be a need for high-end workstations.

* The only justification for a high-end machine is a high-end
  application.

* What are the high-end applications of the future going to be?

    Virtual reality
    Realistic image generation
    Visualization
    Others?

* What features will machines of the future need to support these
  applications?

    Very complicated geometric models
    Realistic lighting
    Realistic surfaces
    Real-time image generation
    Others...

* All of these features are computationally intensive.

* What type of machine will support the features needed by high-end
  applications?

    It depends.

* Different architectures are better suited for different
  applications

    High-end workstations
    Clusters of low-end workstations (or, perhaps, clusters of high-end PCs)
    Something in-between?

* Conclusions:

    There will be a need for high-end workstations...
    ... but only for a few very specialized applications ...
    ... There will also be a need for the lower end.