The major factor in determining the quality  of a computer is the speed it can manage.  All the information is stored in the hard disk  from where it is transfered to RAM and then to cache , which is then used by the processor. Hard disk is slowest of all and it is a major limiting factor for the computer.

Imagine a computer where the hard disk is as fast as RAM. Then there is no use of a seperate RAM. Istead the information is transfered from the "Hard Disk cum RAM" to cache directly. Do you think this is not possible or that it will be expensive? No. Thanks to IBM, a new type of Hard Disk called "The Millipede" will become our new future. Not only this storage media is fast(faster than our current speeds of RAM) it is tiny too. Within an area of 1 inch square it can store information upto 1 terabytes. Can you imagine the genius of this creation? No more bulky 1kg harddisks which can atmost provide 500gb. No more RAMs whose max capacity is about 4GB. Instead we get a Device which is both a hard disk and a RAM whose size is a square inch and whose capacity is in terabytes. This will make the size,power consumption, weight ,speed atleast 10 times better than our normal computer.

This technology will most probably come out with in the next 5 years and with it we will enter the next generation of computers.