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To: van wang who wrote (22930)3/22/1998 3:16:00 AM
From: rudedog  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 97611
 
You need to check with some techies who know a little more - richard's response was 100%. Software that depends on assumptions about execution speed or sequence of external events to work is bad software. Not that there is not a lot of bad software out there... I could give you a hundred (hey, maybe a thousand) examples of programs and operating system code from brand names like IBM and HP that broke when run on HW that was 10 times as fast as what they were designed for. But this has been going on for 30 years at least, more likely since computers became programmable. nothing new about the 333 PII in that respect. maybe we should go back to the 'turbo' button?



To: van wang who wrote (22930)3/22/1998 12:16:00 PM
From: Night Writer  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 97611
 
van wang,
Shame on you. Hardware vs software design has been around since the first operating system, and the first chip. Ask your friends if this is a new problem or an old problem. I think they will say it is a constant problem in one form or another. Chip manufactures and software designers try to coordinate before a new chip comes out. A new chip with no applications is no good to anybody. Put the problem in prospective and don't use it to scare people.

Hmmm, on second though maybe you really believe this is a great problem.
NW



To: van wang who wrote (22930)3/22/1998 11:09:00 PM
From: Richard Ruscio  Respond to of 97611
 
van,

The software design issues relate to timing - the code has assumptions built in that depend on things taking a certain period of time. When some of the hardware goes "too fast" the assumptions fail.

Lord knows, I spent enough of my time with a logic analyzer fixing my own mistakes. Like when the reply to the message came back before I queued the record to deal with the interrupt, so I missed the reply, and never cleared the queue ...

Software - be careful how you use it - and kids, don't try this at home ...

rr