Is computer software always ahead of hardware?

Mondo Technology Updated on 2024-01-30

We float in a sea of data, using our electronic devices to keep moving and afloat. Every device needs software to function, and a large number of users are imagining new ways to use these gadgets, as well as the simplicity of creating instructions that tell the hardware what to do, almost guaranteeing that the software will always be one step ahead of the machine to run it.

Almost everyone is now able to write software," said Devadas, a professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT. "They may not realize that formatting in a word processor or writing commands and scripts in excel is basic programming. ”

For digital natives, spending an afternoon updating and reconfiguring their social profile is second nature, and they can easily share their creations with friends, who can further modify them.

On the contrary, it is very difficult for the average person to design hardware from scratch or even redesign it, and in order to make something like an iPad, or even an integrated circuit in our devices, design knowledge, raw materials, and manufacturing techniques are required.

Plus, sharing hardware has become more difficult. If I build a radio, I'll have to give you the physical thing. But I can email you and 10,000 other people what I've written, and they can use it or improve it.

One of the challenges that Devadas often presents to his students is to improve the efficiency of the software so that every feature addition does not require a hardware upgrade. Devadas teaches a software engineering course (students do more than just post updates or create electrons** on FB) and encourages students to think about the challenges of hardware performance, which can hinder the proper presentation of their creations, including games. "The hardware lags because it can't run the function fast enough," he said.

When it comes to gaming, software solutions don't solve the problem, and he recommends that you go with a partial hardware solution: "Just unplug the graphics card and replace it with a new one,".

The new graphics card offers enough processing power to achieve the high speed required for gaming.

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