[Coco] CoCo Video Player

[Frank Pittel]

While the hardware is the reason for software, hardware without software is just so much junk sitting in a
pile. The two go hand in hand. All the software in the world won't make a Coco capable of gigabit ethernet!


On Fri, Mar 18, 2011 at 12:20:35PM -0500, Boisy G. Pitre wrote:
> As a software guy, I have to agree with Steve.  I can only play in the software world due to the designs of the hardware engineers.  The hardware creates the world in which the software lives.
> 
> Clever as DriveWire may be, it ultimately is a software solution and is limited to the bit banger's physical speed limitations.
> 
> I bow down to the hardware gods!
> 
> On Mar 18, 2011, at 10:47 AM, Steve Batson wrote:
> 
> > Adding my 2 cents...I'm actually kinda of surprised to see this type of 
> > debate on this list....Yes hardware and software depend on each other, both 
> > are required to make everything work. I have to disagree that Software is 
> > more powerful than hardware since the hardware is ultimately what makes it 
> > all happen in the end. Yes the software directs actions and does all sorts 
> > of calculations and such, but that is all because the hardware is busy 
> > working on what the software tells it to do.
> > 
> > I would submit that any task you might have software do, could be faster, 
> > more efficient and more robust if implemented completely in hardware. I'm 
> > not saying that everything should be, or is feasible to do in hardware, I'm 
> > just trying to make a point. As someone already said, you can't make 
> > software do more than hardware is capable off. The main thing that software 
> > has over hardware, is that you have the flexibility to change things 
> > anytime, including on the fly. We wouldn't have computers as we do today if 
> > it wasn't for software of course. 
> > 
> > And just because you might be able to use software to force the hardware to 
> > do something that maybe it wasn't necessarily designed for, doesn't make it 
> > more powerful than hardware. The hardware is a wall for the software. Once 
> > you have written the tightest, most efficient machine code that can be 
> > written, you hit a brick wall. You then need that next more powerful, 
> > faster hardware to go further. 
> > 
> > Bottom line, use the right tools for the job. With computers, it's Hardware 
> > and Software. Regardless of what you are trying to do, using the best of 
> > both will get the best results.
> > 
> 
> --
> Boisy G. Pitre
> http://www.tee-boy.com/
> 
> 
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