[unclebucknasty]

True. But, I think that's the other side of the coin. That is, I'm not so sure we need faster CPUs as we once did.

Save for extreme gamers and other more esoteric applications (e.g. CAD, video transcoding, etc.), most folks (i.e. the majority of the PC market) wouldn't benefit much from a CPU that's much faster than those now commonly fitted to the slightly-above-average consumer rig.

So, in general, I don't think software makers are holding back from making software that pushes the hardware. I just think it's more difficult to push today's more powerful hardware with typical software applications.

[pyre]

Significant NLP for UI purposes could push hardware.

[unclebucknasty]

Agreed. There are a host of other potential applications that could push hardware as well.

And, I do believe that if one were to have mass market appeal (i.e. broad utility and demand), then we may see increased PC demand again (provided the PC is the appropriate platform).

But, do you think that there are a significant number of such applications waiting in the wings for PC hardware advances, or do you believe that perhaps no such applications are ready for prime-time as of now?

[cardine]

Eventually yes. However in the near-term I see almost all NLP advances being implemented on the cloud.