ABSTRACT
Cost reduction in normal technological progress can be regarded as a widening and extending of the application cost decline that brought the technology out of its first-stage innovation process. Increasing power density is shorthand for the tendency for technologies to become more useful even as they get physically smaller. Learning curve cost reductions are part of normal technological development. The learning curve begins when new technology becomes economical in some application and is available for entrepreneurially guided improvement. The role of the technology revolution can be understood as a resetting of the normal technology process, providing it with a renewed slate of the improvement possibilities. The physical potential of a line of technology may be pushed well beyond the optimum if it is subject to political influence. The charge-coupled device’s (CCD’s) technology antecedents include miniature integrated circuitry and photoelectric technology.
