Programmers: Evolve or Die
Thu, 10/27/2005 - 17:18
Systems Design
PC programmers are beginning to catch on to the changes that are taking place in CPU architectures. A recent talk given at In-Stat/MDR's Fall Processor Forum was reported on by Computerworld. The speaker was Herb Sutter, a Software Architect from Microsoft who felt that CPU designers did not understand the plight of software engineers that were ill-prepared for multicore CPUs that are coming down the road. The tone of the report seemed to be that chip designers simply needed to understand that they were not serving the needs of programmers by following this path.
What the speaker apparently failed to understand is the level of frustration that has been building in the semiconductor design community. The sacred PC architecture has been the bedrock of software progress, but it also has been a millstone around the neck of hardware engineers that want to be more creative. I have spoken with more than one designer that is much more interested in FPGA-based application designs than creating yet another incarnation of a 20-year old platform to feed the needs of programmers. More than a few of them are talking directly to customers and building solutions that are breaking away from the traditional generic hardware / specific software model that has been the norm for the last few decades. If they can deliver cost-effective value in embedded applications by circumventing software, then all the better for them.
In the PC world it is a little more complex. CPUs simply cannot make progress the way they have in the past, so the alternative is to multiply the CPU resource. This will challenge software engineers, separating the ones that can adapt from those that can’t. The ones that can most effectively create software using the new rules will be able to demand a premium, whether they are in Indiana or India. This is not a good or a bad thing, simply a fact of life.
Larry Mittag
What the speaker apparently failed to understand is the level of frustration that has been building in the semiconductor design community. The sacred PC architecture has been the bedrock of software progress, but it also has been a millstone around the neck of hardware engineers that want to be more creative. I have spoken with more than one designer that is much more interested in FPGA-based application designs than creating yet another incarnation of a 20-year old platform to feed the needs of programmers. More than a few of them are talking directly to customers and building solutions that are breaking away from the traditional generic hardware / specific software model that has been the norm for the last few decades. If they can deliver cost-effective value in embedded applications by circumventing software, then all the better for them.
In the PC world it is a little more complex. CPUs simply cannot make progress the way they have in the past, so the alternative is to multiply the CPU resource. This will challenge software engineers, separating the ones that can adapt from those that can’t. The ones that can most effectively create software using the new rules will be able to demand a premium, whether they are in Indiana or India. This is not a good or a bad thing, simply a fact of life.
Larry Mittag
