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The world could run on older hardware if software optimization was a priority

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838 points turrini | 1 comments | 13 May 25 10:31 UTC | HN request time: 0.203s | source
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freddie_mercury ◴[13 May 25 12:01 UTC] No.43971929[source]▶
The world DOES run on older hardware.

How new do you think the CPU in your bank ATM or car's ECU is?

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ngangaga ◴[13 May 25 12:08 UTC] No.43971989[source]▶
Sure, if you think the world consists of cash transactions and whatever a car needs to think about.
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leonheld ◴[13 May 25 12:16 UTC] No.43972059[source]▶
If we're talking numbers, there are many, many more embedded systems than general purpose computers. And these are mostly built on ancient process nodes compared to the cutting edge we have today; the shiny octa-cores on our phones are supported by a myriad of ancilliary chips that are definitely not cutting edge.
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ngangaga ◴[13 May 25 12:20 UTC] No.43972092[source]▶
We aren't talking numbers, though. Who cares about embedded? I mean that literally. This is computation invisible by design. If that were sufficient we wouldn't have smartphones.
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1. rescbr ◴[13 May 25 15:58 UTC] No.43974353[source]▶
In a way, and for a long time, smartphones were/are defined as embedded devices.

I still don't see how one can classify a smartphone as a general-purpose computing device, even though they have enough computing power as a laptop.