Issues in Computational Data Analysis

Computers have been widely used to analyze data since the 1950’s. Around 1970 a few experimental installations reached a high enough performance to permit exploratory, interactive analysis of non-trivial data sets. We are now reaching another plateau, where the scatterplot performance of inexpensive high-end PC’s approaches the limits of the human perceptual system. Our discussion concentrates on general computing aspects rather than on specific algorithms. With a view towards the more distant future, we should also begin to think about exploratory data analysis strategies, tools and techniques that go beyond those in present use and that extend to larger data sets.