A single memory chip holds 250,000 times as much information as did its counterpart in the early 1970s - the difference between one page of text and 1,600 books. Sending the 32-volume Encyclopaedia Britannica from New York to San Francisco would have taken 97 minutes in 1970, compared to one second today. The resulting cost savings were also staggering. Today's Pentium III chip sells for 17 per megahertz. Wal-Mart cut its delivery costs by 20 percent by installing computers, global positioning gear, and cell phones in all of its trucks.
Consumers also pay lower costs thanks to microprocessors hidden inside their everyday appliances.
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