Introduction

1]. In fact, Moore’s law still holds today, with processors doubling in complexity approximately every 2 years. Moore’s law typifies the growth in all aspects of computing. Hard disk drive capacity nearly doubles each year while the cost per gigabyte nearly halves [2].

This growth has consequences for radiotherapy. The useful lifetime of any item of computer software or hardware is going to be fairly short. In the NHS, a lifetime of 5 years is used for IT equipment, compared to 10 years for a linear accelerator [3]. This growth also needs to be considered when planning for long-term needs. It will be more costly to purchase 5 years’ data storage immediately than it will be to buy half now and half in 2 years’ time, at a quarter of the cost.

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