Messages in this thread | | | Date | Tue, 3 Aug 1999 19:06:31 -0700 (PDT) | From | Santos Halpar <> | Subject | Re: First WinModem for Linux |
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Fred Reimer wrote: > When one technology (generic function CPU) can perform the > work of another (special function DSP's) at a lower cost overhead it > is obvious, from a capitalist supply and demand viewpoint, that the > DSP vendors are overcharging.
IMO, the reason that Turing machines are so cool is that they allow one piece of hardware to perform arbitrary calculation tasks with just software modifications. This means that you can avoid R&D costs on special-purpose chips, gain economies of scale, and avoid distribution costs and checks for availability of special hardware. In my ideal (theoretical) world, there wouldn't be hardware modems, 3D accelerators, etc. Obviously in real life certain DSPs (e.g. 3D chips) proliferate enough and are a large enough performance gain to make special purpose hardware worthwile, but that's IMO the special case. The extreme of having no general CPU but rather special purpose word processor, spreadsheet, mp3, etc. chips is obviously not the way to go. With the relatively low computation costs of modems I don't find it surprising at all that doing things in software is often a win, especially when you consider that most consumer's CPUs are over 90% idle more than 90% of the time.
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