Computer hardware is the collection of physical elements that comprise a computer system.
Questions tagged [hardware]
149 questions
287
votes
39 answers
Why don't all companies buy developers the best hardware?
I must be missing something.
The cost of employing a programmer in my area is $50 to $100 an hour. A top end machine is only $3,000, so the cost of buying a truly great computer every three years comes to $0.50/hour. ($3000/(150 wks * 40…
Eric Wilson
- 12,071
- 9
- 50
- 77
101
votes
7 answers
What is the history of why bytes are eight bits?
What were the historical forces at work, the tradeoffs to make, in deciding to use groups of eight bits as the fundamental unit?
There were machines, once upon a time, using other word sizes. But today, for non-eight-bitness, you must look to museum…
DarenW
- 4,433
- 3
- 22
- 43
96
votes
12 answers
What is meant by the phrase “Software can replace hardware”?
Studying beginners course on hardware/software interface and operating systems, often come up the topic of if it would be better to replace some hardware parts with software and vice-versa. I can't make the connection.
Gabriele Scarlatti
- 1,107
- 1
- 8
- 8
73
votes
3 answers
How does a single thread run on multiple cores?
I am trying to understand, at a high-level, how single threads run across multiple cores. Below is my best understanding. I do not believe it is correct though.
Based on my reading of Hyper-threading, it seems the OS organizes
the instructions of…
Evorlor
- 1,440
- 2
- 16
- 22
61
votes
4 answers
Is there a good reason to run 32-bit software instead of 64-bit on 64-bit machines?
Is there any good reason to supply a 32-bit version along with a 64-bit version of any software targeted at modern desktop machines, running modern 64-bit operating systems on 64-bit hardware?
It seems that 64-bit software would be more efficient,…
Filip Haglund
- 2,823
- 3
- 16
- 20
59
votes
12 answers
How Do Computers Work?
This is almost embarrassing ask...I have a degree in Computer Science (and a second one in progress). I've worked as a full-time .NET Developer for nearly five years. I generally seem competent at what I do.
But I Don't Know How Computers…
Rob P.
- 823
- 2
- 7
- 11
51
votes
25 answers
Thoughts on Development using Virtual Machines
I'll be working as a development lead for a startup and I've suggested that we use VMs for development. I'm not talking about each developer having a desktop with VMs for testing/development, I mean having a server rack where all VMs are managed…
J_A_X
- 442
- 1
- 5
- 10
44
votes
15 answers
How have languages influenced CPU design?
We are often told that the hardware doesn't care what language a program is written in as it only sees the compiled binary code, however this is not the whole truth. For example, consider the humble Z80; its extensions to the 8080 instruction set…
Gaius
- 646
- 1
- 7
- 17
41
votes
19 answers
Would you purchase hardware with your own money to use at work to do your job better?
At work, I was given a reasonably-spec'ed machine (dual quad 2GHz, 4GB RAM, 160GB 7200RPM drive, Win7), but it was lacking in a few places (HDD / RAM). The IT staff was OK with me replacing hardware with my own, so now I'm sporting an SSD and an…
Bryan Boettcher
- 2,754
- 4
- 21
- 31
40
votes
9 answers
Looking for meaningful, strong argument in favor of antivirus software on development machines
When forming opinions, it is a good practice to follow scholastic tradition - think as hard as you can against the opinion you hold and try to find counter-arguments.
However, no matter how hard I try, I just cannot find reasonable arguments in…
Maros Urbanec
- 655
- 5
- 7
37
votes
5 answers
What is the absolute minimum set of instructions required to build a Turing complete processor
I have a general idea of how the processor handles instructions but spend my time working in mostly high level languages. Maybe somebody who works closer to the iron can provide some valuable insight.
Assuming that programming languages are…
Evan Plaice
- 5,725
- 2
- 24
- 34
32
votes
1 answer
Performance of single-assignment ADT oriented code on modern CPUs
Working in immutable data with single assignments has the obvious effect of requiring more memory, one would presume, because you're constantly creating new values (though compilers under the covers do pointer tricks to make this less of an…
Jimmy Hoffa
- 16,039
- 3
- 69
- 80
30
votes
4 answers
How to efficiently troubleshoot or test new code when hardware setup to reproduce bugs is difficult or impossible to obtain?
I work at a mid-sized company (150ish employees, ~10 size engineering team), and most of my projects involve interfacing with lab equipment (oscilloscopes, optical spectrum analyzers, etc) for the purpose of semi-automated test applications. I have…
plast1k
- 1,549
- 2
- 9
- 12
26
votes
3 answers
Why are there separate L1 caches for data and instructions?
Just went over some slides and noticed that the L1 cache (at least on Intel CPUs) distinguishes between data and instruction cache, I would like to know why this is..
Nils
- 556
- 2
- 5
- 13
26
votes
6 answers
Is it the job of a developer to suggest IT requirements?
I am the only developer working on a web application which is nearing to its end. Now we are looking into making it Live in maybe a couple of months time.
This is a web application for a non IT company. Though they have their own internal IT team,…
ajm
- 1,255
- 1
- 10
- 23