Fujitsu Siemens Computers is predicting that current rates of development in computing systems will see the power of a desktop PC increase a million-fold and available bandwidth will grow by 200,000 times over the next 25 years.

“With Moore’s Law continuing to double the number of cores every 18 months, the PC of 2033 will be a million times more powerful than today’s systems, and with Neilsen’s Law seeing bandwidth increasing by 50 per cent year on year, we’ll have 200,000 times more capacity here. The ordinary PC will be running at the equivalent of three petahertz, it’ll have 100,000 cores or more, a petabyte of memory, half an exabyte of storage and connect to the Internet with a bandwidth of over a quarter of a terabyte.

“A quarter of a century on, PCs will have taken on many different shapes and sizes. There will be wearable systems that are built into clothing and small handheld devices that project holographic forms of input and output devices. These will provide ‘traditional’ keyboards, mice and 2D displays for users who prefer what will have become the ‘old style’ computing by then. Most users however will be more accustomed to using voice recognition and 3D holographic projections, or even retinal image displays that are built-into spectacles or sunglasses.

“We may also see more advanced sensory devices that enable you to control the computer just by ‘thinking’ the commands. This may seem far-fetched at the moment but the technology is already being developed and has been proven to work. It will simply be a matter of training your mind to work in that way.”