Remember that fabulous little chunk of computer-generated imagery in Star Wars, where they discover the Death Star's weak point?
Now it is becoming increasingly clear that if bigger chunks of computer memory are available and affordable, users will gobble them up.
Packet switching takes large messages (or chunks of computer data) and breaks them into smaller, manageable pieces (known as packets) that can travel independently over any available circuit to the target destination, where the pieces are reassembled.
Piper Jaffray said Dell and Hewlett-Packard are set to take "a significant chunk" of personal computer revenue from IBM after the latter announced it sold the PC business to Lenovo, China's largest PC maker for $1.75 billion.
Even worse, if you try to bring it to an Apple Store to get it fixed, it's an expensive process that involves replacing a good chunk of the computer.
Pressed by a need to streamline their balance sheets, cut costs and drastically upgrade their information technology to regain competitiveness, Japanese companies are farming out chunks of their computer operations to companies like IBM Japan, Fujitsu and NTT Data.
Hoping to snag a bigger chunk of hand-held computer sales during the holidays, Dell will launch its new line of Axim personal digital assistants today.
Moreover, a large chunk of spending on computers and suchlike is intended either to boost productivity or to replace obsolete equipment, not to increase capacity.
Next to the Johnniac is a large chunk of an I.B.M. SAGE computer, one of about two dozen built in the 1950's as part of an early warning air-defense system.
One computer sends a chunk of data, called a packet, to another computer, and waits for an acknowledgment message, or ACK.
