phonon
Posts: 396
Joined: Nov. 2006
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| Quote (Richardthughes @ Mar. 30 2007,14:54) | | Quote (phonon @ Mar. 30 2007,14:33) | | Quote | All changes to existing hardware have to be made through software.
Hogwash. A class of devices called the Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) has been around for almost 25 years. I remember when my Intel Field Service Engineer was hyping Xilinx FPGA’s to me in the mid-1980’s. I presumed Intel had a financial stake in Xilinx. They were way too slow for anything I was doing but they can be reconfigured on the fly, in-circuit, running hot.
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Uh, DaveScot, uh DellMillionaire Genius? You do know that by using the word "programmable" in the name of the device, that means that it is controlled by software don't you? |
Not 5 trillion dipstick switches? |
Or 5 trillion POOFS from the intelligent designer. Cheesy poofs, that is.
I guess you could wire everything manually. There are many electronic devices where the programs are hardwired into a chip. But, what is really the definition of software? To me the definition of software IS a program. If you program something by manually wiring it using schematics, or the instructions are fed by punchcard or a magnetic disk, then the instructions themselves, no matter how they were entered ARE the software. If something is programmable, there is a program involved and (to me at least) a program = software, no matter the input device.
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With most men, unbelief in one thing springs from blind belief in another. - Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
To do just the opposite is also a form of imitation. - Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
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