Full text |
George E. Mueller, (Chairman and President System Development Corporation).
Beyond the computer âge, in: Management Review 66 (1977) 5, p. 45-49.
The computer era as we know it today is coming to an end. Most of today’s com-
puters eventually will be replaced by quite different machines. Although today’s
computers are efficient at performing complex mathematical calculations, they are
déficient at ail the mundane operations of storing, sorting, and fetching ail tasks
that are required in data base management and that constitute 90 percent of what
we ask computers to do today. The computer industry has designed machines op-
timized for only 10 percent of the workload. As we move toward a paperless
society, the demand for efficient and reliable storage and retrieval will become more
acute. When we abandon the crutch of the ubiquitous computer printout, more and
more of our records will be relegated to electronic storage. An entirely new type of
processor will be developed in the next five to ten years, and this machine will be
optimized for data base management functions. Probably, out of habit, we will still
call it a computer, but it will be very different from the computers we know today.
The new System architecture must allow for the fact that tomorrow s Systems will be
used by clerks, not programmers. Ideally, a clerk should be able to enter a request
in free-form English without resorting to special keywords, mnemonics, or special
symbols. The System should not require that the clerk spell correctly, or even enter
the request in any structured form. The System should respond to the clerk just as if
it were another person. We cannot afford to rely on electromechanical devices, such
as disks and magnetic tapes, much longer. These electromechanical storage media
must be replaced by some kind of cost-effective solid-state mass memories. We are
on the verge of a breakthrough in memories. The work on electron-beam, laser, and
super-cooled memories is promising. We will be able to store and process at least a
bibliography of ail the literature in the U.S., using a System no larger than a con-
ventional office desk.
H.-K. d. J.
C. D. Paice, (Lecturer Computer Science, Lancaster University). Information
retrieval and the computer. Macdonald and Jane’s Publishers Ltd., Paulton House,
8 Shepherdess Walk, London NI 7LW, England, 1977, 206 p. Illus. Ref. (Mac-
donald and Jane’s Computer Monographs, 26). £ 5.95. ISBN 0-354-04095-2.
The actual and possible uses of computers for storing and retrieving information,
especially information in documentary form, are outlined. The reader is assumed to
have a basic knowledge of computing, but does not need to be a computer expert
Contents : The retrieval process (File records ; Search logic ; Record structure and
rôle indicators -, Matching due to attribute ; File organisation) -, Documents and
their classification (The network of knowledge ; Classification and indexing ; Sim-
ple classification schemes ; Multiple classification ; Faceted classification) ; Indexes
(Conventional indexes ; Context indexes ; Author indexes ; Citation indexes ;
Chain indexing ; Post-co-ordinate indexes) ; Automatic classification ; Abstracts
and extracts; Automated document retrieval Systems; Appendices: (1) List of
source books (24 entries) ; Journals (10 en tries) ; Index.
H.-K. d. J.
Bibliotheekgids—Jg. 53 —Nr. 4 —1977 /
247 |