(My understanding is that the graphics world is in the process of turning the wheel another notch with the GPGPU)wheel of reincarnation [coined in a paper by T.H. Myer and I.E. Sutherland On the Design of Display Processors, Comm. ACM, Vol. 11, no. 6, June 1968)] Term used to refer to a well-known effect whereby function in a computing system family is migrated out to special-purpose peripheral hardware for speed, then the peripheral evolves toward more computing power as it does its job, then somebody notices that it is inefficient to support two asymmetrical processors in the architecture and folds the function back into the main CPU, at which point the cycle begins again.
Several iterations of this cycle have been observed in graphics-processor design, and at least one or two in communications and floating-point processors. Also known as the Wheel of Life, the Wheel of Samsara, and other variations of the basic Hindu/Buddhist theological idea.
To this list we can the thin client/fat client oscillation, and at the moment the pendulum is swinging toward thicker clients. Thus AJAX.
Clearly there isn't one inherently correct solution to these sorts of "where do I put the processing power" questions. The answer at any given moment depends on economics: How much does processing power cost (and how much can you gain by concentrating it in powerful servers)? How much does bandwidth cost? How much do the various models cost to develop, test, deploy and administer?
A related question: How much development effort goes into new products and solutions, and how much goes into adapting existing products and solutions to the pendulum's latest swing?
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