At 9:32 AM -0700 7/16/99, [log in to unmask] wrote:

>What's an IBM gigabyte announcement when
>compared to the fact that HP has announced today that they're
>on the verge of building computers 100 billion times faster than
>current PCs and no larger than a grain of salt?

Fascinating story!  But without taking away anything from what
Wirt wrote, I should point out the full quote is:

   "James Heath, a UCLA chemistry professor who is leading the
    research with Hewlett-Packard, described the possibility of
    computers 100 billion times as fast as a Pentium III
    microprocessor. He also suggested that it may some day
    be possible to replicate the power of 100 computer work
    stations in a space the size of a grain of salt."

To my tired eyes, that reads more like "or" instead of "and," to wit:

- computers (of unspecified size) 100 billion times as fast
  as a current PC

- a computer (the size of a grain of salt) 100 times as fast
  as a current PC (since the line between "workstation" and "PC"
  appears negligible)

While HP's announcement is orders of magnitude more exciting
than IBM's, the latter's product is available today.

Thanks for the news, Wirt! :)

--Glenn