Michael D. Kipp, Chairman and Chief Operating Officer of a technology research company in Provo, Utah, who will participate in the second annual International Business Conference on campus from Nov. 6-10, spoke to School of Computing students in their Nov. 2 InForm session about the astounding progress of technology over the past 60 years.
Kipp, an engineer who earned a master's degree in micro-robotics and nuclear safeguards as well as an MBA degree, told the students because of their training and "listening to the Spirit," they have special advantages in the rapidly evolving fields of technology. "As you get out into the world, you're going to find that still, small voice to be invaluable in finding solutions to real-world problems."
Quoting from the Church's Strength of Youth publication, Kipp read, "The Lord wants you to educate your mind and to improve your skills and abilities. Education will help you to be an influence for good in the world. It will help you better provide for yourself, for your loved ones and those in need."
"Does the Lord want you to be successful?" he asked. In response, he cited Alma 1:29–30 which described the people as becoming exceedingly rich. "The Lord wants you to be wealthy. The question is why? To take what you have and help others. That's what technology does."
To give a "background on where we're at and how fast things are going," Kipp noted that IBM™ built the first real computer in 1948, which would not fit in GCB 140 where the meeting was being held. "The air conditioning to run it would not fit in this room," he said.
A lot has changed since then, Kipp continued. He pointed out that for years after a lot of technology was developed using slide rules for mathematical calculations, including putting a man on the moon in 1969. He also recalled that by the early 70s computers were using languages such as Fortran and Pascal, with punch-card decks of formulas and data.
Even when PCs [personal computers] came into the marketplace in the 1980s, Kipp noted the early ones used eight-inch disks that could only hold 500 kilobytes of data.
Kipp also compared some of the subsequent innovations in technology to the drawings in the Pearl of Great Price: "This thing kind of tells the history of mankind and what's coming about on a single-disk format. It doesn't get much more condensed than that."
He said in the 90s bar codes and bubble memory came into widespread use, "and today CMOS [complementary metal oxide semiconductors] is the current technology that [computer] chips are made on." This, he continued, has been followed by the tremendous growth of storage devices so that "now everything has at least a gig [gigabyte] of memory" and technical devices have gotten much smaller.
For example, Kipp recalled that the original portable phone was about the size of a shoe box, and heavy. Today, cell phones are common, but will probably be replaced by satellite phones, he said.
"Telecommunications is huge," Kipp continued, "and we have areas where they really need you to bring technology there. You don't have to have land lines. You don't have to be hard wired." For example, he added, many provinces in China do not have hard wires. "How big a difference will it be when satellite phones take their place? I would predict that this [a cell phone] will become absolutely Smithsonian [i.e. a museum item] in less than five years."
"CMOS is becoming obsolete. Size is what's driving it...and we have a new, old design — vacuum tubes," Kipp said. "They're almost totally impervious to EMP" [electromagnetic pulses]. "And every time they come up with a new [chip] redesign, the retooling costs over $1 billion, so they need to sell a lot of chips to make a profit."
"We don't completely understand the physics, but the vacuum acts as a sling shot," he said, adding that test data show speeds over 100 terahertz. "The most recently published speed of a computer cryogenically — you're only going to find it in a laboratory — is 500 gigahertz. Terahertz is your next major increment. We're talking something that's incredibly fast."
He added that in talking with scientists, "if we can get this thing to work in a production form, we will really understand how we can use fiber optics."
Finally, Kipp encouraged the students to continue their studies. Referring to a book title by Latter-day Saint author and business executive Sherie Dew, who will also speak at the International Business Conference, he also reminded them that "God wants a powerful people."