MAIN

Final Project

---

Current computer hardware technology is extremely advanced. Even though it is very advanced, its physical limits have yet to be met. The reason for this is that computer software does not fully support and utilize the hardware. If the hardware is better supported by software, customers will get better use of the product and will be more likely to buy again. If more support is provided for the hardware, the hardware manufacturers will help promote the software manufacturers. The advancement of computer hardware development will benefit significantly as well. For the good of software companies, hardware companies, and the general advancement of computer technology, computer software manufacturers need to provide better and more support for advanced computer hardware.

Computers are very advanced pieces of equipment. They consist of both hardware components, which are of a physical aspect, and software components, which are of a virtual aspect. In order to operate, the software and hardware must work together. This is very similar to how a motor vehicle operates. The vehicle itself is what does all the physical work. It has the capability to accelerate and change direction, but it will only do what the driver tells it to do. The driver must coordinate himself with the car in order to operate. The basic concept of how a car operates is fairly simple. At least for the standard vehicle with an automatic transmission today, there is a lever of some sort, at least one position to tell the vehicle to go forward and one to go backward, two pedals, one to speed up and one to slow down, and a steering wheel to turn left and right. Anyone who is physically able to manipulate these controls can technically drive a car, but it takes practice and skill to be able to drive a car effectively and coordinate these operations. Similarly, the basic concept of how a computer operates is fairly simple. There is the memory and hard drive for storage of data, the processor to process the data, and the video to output the data to the screen. Almost any software can technically operate the hardware, but it takes good, compatible software to coordinate all the hardware to run effectively. Having a high end computer, at least in terms of hardware, is just as useless as having a hotrod with a 98 year old great grandmother behind the wheel if there the software running on it is out of date or not fully compatible with the hardware. Computers need good software just as much as cars need good drivers.

Current computer hardware is far more advanced than computer software. Processing and video capabilities are continually on the rise. Even with all of these advances in hardware, there have not been enough advances in software to keep up. The biggest software manufacturer right now, Microsoft, has not made a notable advancement since the release of the operating system Windows XP in 2001. Five years is an extremely long time in the world of technology today. In 2001, AMD, Advanced Micro Devices, came out with a brand new line of processors, the Athlon XP line, running at 1600 MHz (Topelt). Intel still had their Pentium line going at the time, but only running at 2200 MHz. Currently, AMD processors run up to 2.8 GHz, about 2800 MHz, and Intel processors run up to 3.8 GHz, about 3800 MHz. Those are some very significant advances in hardware, and those are just in processors. Those are not even the only advances among processors, let alone among all computer hardware.

Perhaps the greatest advancement in processors over the past 5 years or so has been the jump to 64-bit technology. A bit is the smallest unit of information in a computer. It consists of a single binary digit, which is a 1 or a 0 (History). The 64 refers to the total number of bits that the computer can process in parallel, at the same time. It can also refer to the number of bits that make up a single data object in the computer, a data object being a chunk of a file, code or memory location. 64-bit, in reference to the computer processor, indicates the width of the registers in the processor. The registers are special, high speed memory locations in the processor (Beal). For a long time, processors were all 32-bit, and 32-bit is still the standard today, in spite of the hardware advances. Since 64 is double of 32, many people think that this will double the performance of your computer. In some aspects it will, like in processing and memory speed, but in others it will increase it even more. Because of the data object aspect of the computer, a 64-bit computer can handle significantly larger files and astronomically more memory locations. A 32-bit computer can have up to 232, or 4294967296, memory locations. A 64-bit computer can have 264, or 18446744073709551616, memory locations (Binary). In terms most people use everyday, 32-bit computers can have up to 4 gigabytes, 4096 megabytes, of RAM, random access memory, while 64-bit can have up to 1 terabyte of RAM, which is 1024 gigabytes (Byte). As can be seen, this is not a mere multiple increase, which is still great in terms of processing power and speed, but a huge exponential increase which makes memory virtually limitless in terms of what is available today.

One very common question and counter argument to this is “why would you ever need that much memory?” 32-bit computing is all there was for a long time, and it still remains the standard for the majority of personal computers today. Most people don’t even use the full 4 gigabytes of RAM available for use on their computers now, so why would they ever want more? This question proves my point fairly well. People have no need of the computer hardware capabilities available to them. The reason they have no need of it is that there is no computer software available that takes advantage of this great technology. The capabilities are there, but there is no way to make use of it. The reason that there is no way to make use of it is that there are no computer programs out there that use the power available. All current software manufacturers dumb down their programs as much as possible to make them usable for the majority of software users. The majority of software users are using computers that typically do not even have one eighth of the maximum capability of a 32-bit system. The reason the majority of software users stay with these systems is that they are low cost, and there is no apparent benefit to spending the little extra for a more advanced system. The computer economy is currently caught in an endless cycle of buying and selling the same thing over and over again with just minor changes that most people probably don’t even notice at all. Software developers need to start offering higher end, non-dumbed down versions of their software if further advances anywhere are to be made.

Even if the availability of more RAM in 64-bit computers isn’t appealing, the idea of double the speed and power is still very attractive. Here, however, there is even more of a problem than there is with the RAM. At least with the ram, there are ways to use it all up with current software, even if it is just being used for the sake of using it. Some high end games are beginning to require more RAM so if several of these games are run at once, all the RAM could be used. The speed of the computer however is a completely different story. This is completely reliant on the software to work properly. Software is built around the computer hardware. Because of this, and of how long 32-bit systems have been in existence, most software is still made in 32-bit form. 32-bit software will only execute code and send and receive data 32 bits at a time (Beal). Therefore, even if run on a 64-bit system, 32-bit software will still only go as fast as if it were run on a 32-bit system. The software needs to be ported, or edited in order to tell it to execute code and send and receive data 64 bits at a time. Porting poses some problems in some areas because basically what is being done is forcing a program to do what it was not originally designed to do, but it would be a good start. The best thing to do is to write programs with the idea of 64-bit compatibility in the forefront, but that requires a lot more time and resources so just getting manufacturers to port their software to 64-bit would be a great.

The most important software aspect of making a 64-bit system run at full capability is the operating system. The operating system is the most advanced form of software there is. It is the one that is responsible for linking the user to the hardware. It coordinates all the other software to work properly with the hardware. The most popular PC operating system to date is Microsoft Windows. Microsoft is also currently the wealthiest software manufacturer. Even with its abundant wealth, it has all but ignored the possibilities of 64-bit computing. The first PC compatible 64-bit processor that was made available to the general public was the 64-bit AMD Opteron and was released in early 2003 (AMD). There was 64-bit technology long before then, but it was the first made available and affordable to the general public so the clock will start there to give Microsoft a little slack. It took the leading operating system software manufacture for PC’s around the world two years to come out with a 64-bit version of their operating system, in spite of their abundant resources. Windows XP Pro 64-bit Edition was released in early 2005 (Fried). With such a long wait, computer enthusiasts had their hopes up, but ended up being very disappointed with the results. It was perhaps the worst release of Windows ever done, and that is saying a lot. It had so many bugs that it was virtually worthless. It was no more than a badly ported version of the regular Windows XP 32-bit edition.

Currently, the only PC software that is effective with 64-bit computers is open source and run on Linux. Even without any substantial financial backing, the open source community is still leading the way in software development. The 64-bit versions of Linux and the open source software designed to run on it are excellent. They use 64-bit to its full capacity. The only problems lie in the fact that, because it is open source, with no funding, it is just made by people working on it in their spare time. Because of this, the different kinds of software you can get for it is sometimes limited, though there is plenty enough for the average user. Also, Linux is not the most user-friendly of operating systems. It is often argued though, that the only reason why it seems not so user friendly is because it is not Windows which so many computer users have become to believe is the only operating system available. Linux requires more knowledge of computers or at least the time to learn the new ways of an unfamiliar operating system. The open source community has embraced the idea of 64-bit computing, but they have always been on the leading edge of software technology. If new hardware technologies are to be taken full advantage of, either the whole world should switch to Linux and join the open source community to make further advancements, or current commercial software manufacturers, particularly Microsoft, should try a little harder to make advancements themselves. The latter seems the most probable of solutions.

If software support for computer hardware is improved, there will be improvements in several other areas. First of all, the direct result will be that people will have better computers to use. With software comparable to the hardware in a computer, computers will run smoother and more efficiently. Currently, if consumers go the extra yard to upgrade their computer, there is not much of a difference in performance per dollar, but once software runs hardware to its maximum capabilities, there will no longer seem to be such a waste and customers will be more satisfied, with both the hardware and the software.

With customer satisfaction comes several other good things. If the consumer finds a product to be good, they are more likely to become a return customer. Also, that customer will most probably spread the word to his or her friends and family. If the friends and family buy and are satisfied, they will report their findings to their friends and family as well. With this endless cycle, profits will soar. This process is good for both hardware and software sales. The hardware and software manufacturers work on each other to provide the best customer satisfaction possible.

Also, software manufacturers will gain sale promotions through the hardware manufacturers. Once the hardware manufacturers find that there is a specific brand or type of software makes their product work well, they will promote it to gain themselves customer satisfaction and the software manufacturer will benefit greatly from this as well. Hardware manufacturers have been doing this for a long time. They will test their products with hardware from other companies and then work with those companies to make their products more compatible together. Just recently, the video card manufacturing giant NVIDIA began working on making their cards more compatible with the new AMD Dual Core processors. They were already “compatible,” but now they are optimizing to work to full capacity together. They are now both promoting each others products with advertisements and logos saying that they work best with each other and to buy the other’s product. Software manufacturers can gain a lot of support themselves if only they help better support the hardware.

One more benefit to having better supported hardware is perhaps the greatest benefit. As of now, hardware manufacturers are finding it difficult to find the limits of their products. They do not have software available to even fully test their products in the field. All of their capabilities have only been fully tested with custom equipment in ideal lab conditions. With their products fully supported, they will be able to make more and new advances and better what they have already designed. Nothing is perfect, everything has flaws, but without having any good means to test for those flaws, the mistakes cannot be amended. The field of hardware development as a whole will become better with the coming of new, better software.

In this essay, I have argued that software manufacturers need to provide more and better support for advanced computer hardware. There is definitely a problem with computer hardware being unsupported by software. The proposed remedy to this problem has countless benefits, including customer satisfaction, higher profits, and the bettering of computer technology as a whole. These benefits positively affect all parties involved. Weigh the pros and cons yourself. Opportunity is knocking and all we have to do is open the door. It would be good to try implementing this tactic and see what happens.

Works Cited

AMD Announces April Launch Date for AMD Opteron™ Processor. AMD Corp. 3 Dec 2005 <http://www.amd.com/us-en/Corporate/VirtualPressRoom/0,,51_104_543~66302,00.html>.

Beal, Vangie. What Is 64-bit Computing? 8 Dec. 2004. Webopedia. 4 Nov 2005 <http://www.webopedia.com/DidYouKnow/Computer_Science/2004/64_bit.asp>.

Binary/Decimal Converter Calculator. MIStupid Inc. 10 Dec. 2005 <http://www.mistupid.com/computers/binaryconv.htm>.

Byte Converter – File Size Calculator. T1 Shopper Inc. 10 Dec. 2005 <http://www.t1shopper.com/tools/calculate/>.

Fried, Ina and Michael Kanellos. Microsoft says 64-bit Windows due in April. 1 Mar. 2005. CNET News. 3 Dec. 2005 <http://news.com.com/Microsoft+says+64-bit+Windows+due+in+April/2100-1016_3-5595124.html>.

History of computing hardware. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 4 Nov. 2005 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_computing_hardware>.

Topelt, Bert and Frank Volkel. AMD Turns Up The Heat: Athlon XP 1900+. 5 Nov. 2001. Tom’s Guide Publishing. 11 Nov. 2005 <http://www.tomshardware.com/2001/11/05/amd_turns_up_the_heat/index.html>.