The limits to growth in IT

The growth in computing power in recent years, fed by rapid advances in VLSI technology, has tended to mask an increasing shortage of professional personnel and lack of corporate investment in the UK information-technology industry, which in turn could lead to rapid curtailing of IT growth in the UK. The article examines some of the reasons why the UK´s future in IT may not be too secure and proposes how the apparent trends may be reversed. Four key areas will be considered: Al, especially parallel architectures and KBS or expert systems; VLSI; software engineering; and skilled manpower