Guest Editors ' Introduction Operating Systems

A s we approach the 21st century and enter the Information Age, we see the uniquely qualified electronics industry playing a vital role in realizing the new era by providing state-of-the-art technology through microelectronics, telecommunications, computer networks, and software. The advent of 32-bit microprocessors that offer the processing power of minis at a fraction of the cost opens up new applications for the ubiquitous microchips in some areas previously thought impossible for computing. This is especially so in the automation of services and business industries. Concurrent with these microtechnological advances are applications in the office, factory, and home, in entertainment and business, that have spawned new areas of opportunities. Office automation, factory automation, and home and business computers (PCs, desktops) make "computing for the masses" a reality. No longer is computing confined to big mainframes with traditional centralized processing and software and operating systems geared toward enhancing the performance of number-crunching operations.