Posted by : bpburnwal on Nov 19, 2003 - 11:05 AM General

Upon exiting a top Silicon Valley executive's 85-minute keynote presentation on the future of technology early Monday, a 20something Comdex attendee turned to a friend as though he'd heard it all before.
"I conceived of those concepts when I was 10 years old," recalled the young Nerd Who Would Be King. "I just didn't know how to make them a reality given the technology on hand at the moment."

Yes, welcome to Comdex, where the path to imagined tech stardom apparently requires little more than a pocket protector and a dream.

This year's scaled-down trade show's projected 50,000 attendees would be well below its peak crowd of roughly 200,000 attendees reported three years ago. Still, Comdex continues to attract top-name talents -- both real and self-imagined -- from the information technology (IT) realm, including Monday's aforementioned keynote speaker, Sun Microsystems Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer Scott McNealy.

Dressed in blue jeans and a long-sleeved shirt with no tie, the folksy McNealy discussed how his Santa Clara, Calif.-based company is working to make many common high-tech devices both easier to use and less costly to install.

Despite people's increased willingness to use the Internet, wireless devices and other new gadgets, McNealy said there's room to improve when it comes to making technology more effective for everyday consumers.

"I often argue that the computer industry is more screwed up than every industry except health care, which loses every one of (its) patients eventually," McNealy joked. "That's why doctors always say, `I practice medicine.' Maybe we ought to say we practice IT."

McNealy said the industry's biggest problem stems from the challenge of incorporating so many different devices, each with specific user needs, into systems that can easily work together.

"As all this stuff gets connected, it creates a massively complex network computing problem," McNealy said before he detailed some of his company's current and proposed solutions.

Joined on stage by Sun Vice President John Loiacono, McNealy touted his company's Sun Ray system, which lets users access their personal computer files by logging into one of many compatible workstations using an encrypted identification card. Rather than storing their own data individually, various workstations are linked via networks to one or more processors, Loiacono explained.

"Your desktop will follow you around wherever you go" in North America, Loiacono said. International service and wireless connections are soon to follow, said McNealy, who said the system is less expensive and more efficient that placing personal computers at each worker's desk.

"We're sharing one CPU (central processing unit) with somewhere between 20 and 200 users ... as opposed to having to buy a (CPU-equipped device) for each employee," McNealy said.

"Sun Ray drives utilization in a massive way."




Citing Sun Ray's growing popularity, McNealy said Sun is now working with the China Standard Software Co. to connect between 500,000 to 1 million workstations in China by the close of next year. McNealy said the company hopes to eventually make its Sun Ray system available in more than 500 million Chinese sites.

McNealy also teased attendees by announcing that Sun has joined with Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Advanced Micro Devices to develop new high-performance computer systems at reduced prices. He offered few specifics on the partnership, but said the companies hope to begin selling their new products sometime during 2004's first six months.