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PROPHECIES CONCERNING THE LAST DAYS
Continued -

4. Population explosion - Gen. 6:1

5. Increase in speed and knowledge -Dan. 12:14
"But as for you, Daniel, conceal these words and seal up the book until the end of time; many will go back and forth, and knowledge will increase."

Knowledge is increasing in quantum leaps especially in the fields of computers and physics.

Computers

Computer processors are doubling in speed and power about every two years just as Gordon Morre, Intel cofounder predicted in 1965 (Moore's Law). The Intel Corporation's produced its first microprocessor, the Intel 4004 in 1971. It operated at 108KHz (0.06 MIPS) and contained 23 hundred transitors. MIP is an acronym for "millions of instructions per second."

When I started using PC's in 1985, the processor was an Intel 8088 which ran at 4.77MHz (0.75 MIPS) and contained 29 thousand transitors. The Intel 80286, better knows as an AT system operated at 2.66 MIPS. The Intel 80386 released in 1985 operated at 11.4 MIPS. The Intel 80486, released in 1989 operated at 41.0 MIPS. The 80586 trademark named "Pentium" released in 1993 operates at 219 MIPS. The Pentium Pro released in 1996, operated at 150MHz (now 200MHz) and contained 5.5 million transitors, and operates at 400 MIPS). On May 7, 1997 the same Corporation released the Pentium II MMX processor with 7.5 million transistors ran at 300MHz and an astounding 750 MIPS. The latest Pentium II processor to be released in the first quarter of 1999 runs at 500MHz.

In 1998 IBM will release microprocessor chips that use copper instead of aluminum for tracings. These new chips will run at a whopping 1GHz. Intel reportedly will release new chips using copper for PC beginning in the year 2002.

Intel Corp., Advanced Micro Devices Inc. and Motorola Corp. are investing $250 million over the next five years in new technology. They have hired scientists in three federal research laboratories to develop chips for making computers 100 times faster with features like 3-D graphics in affordable machines. The new technique under development employs ultra-violet light to etch lines smaller than one-thousandth the width of a strand of human hair - that's 60% smaller than the patterns in the most sophisticated chips now available.
The aim is to be able to cram 1 billion transistors onto each thumbnail-size chip by 2011, a goal of Intel chairman Andrew Grove.

Astrophysicist Mike Warren needed a super computer but couldn't get the computation time he needed on the machines at Los Alamos National Laboratory so he built his own! His "home-made" super-computer with off-the-shelf components. The total price for this super computer which is ranked 100th fastest computer in the world is a dirt-cheap $313,000. His system is composed of 140 533MHz Alpha 21164A processors using Linux as the operating system, and connected with ordinary Ethernet equipment and 35.8 GB of memory can perform an astounding 48.5 billion calculations a second!

Powerful systems are also becoming more and more compact. IBM is now working on a human networking system that would use a person's body as the network media. You can exchange information by simply shaking hands with another person.

Stanford University and the Air Force are currently testing a system that links electrical signals from the human brain to computers. This will make it possible for users to interact with computer systems merely by thinking.

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