Hardware vs Software in 2022

For the last few decades, it seems like hardware and software have been playing this tug of war. What side is more “advanced” in this day and age? What does it mean to be “advanced” compared to the other. Looking back to previous times in history might give a better view on it and what the future looks like for both realms of technology.

If you were born in the 90s, you grew up in a time where technology transitioned from being a specialized item to being dominate in our lives. Technology in the 90s was cutting edge, but by far from a clear cut, standardized item. Anything went. Then, the 2000s hit. IBM is not longer a household brand. Apple unveils the iPod. Mobile phones were as fragmented as can be. It was a lawless land. Your PC was only as fast as Moore’s law could make it. Windows XP was really just DOS perfected and Vista was an attempt at something new. Anything was possible in this day and age. But then, something changed, Moore’s law, was… broken… Hardware screeched to a halt. The same tech that revolutionized before became bloated, requiring more power and creating more heat. Though at the same time, something new happened…

The smartphone took off. These mobile devices needed to be power efficient. They need to cut down that bloat. It reframed what technology was. It wasn’t going to the moon with what hardware could do, while software just road the wave. It was what software could do to squeeze out performance of the now. The creation of ARM was arguably one of the biggest shifts in technology of all time. x86 computing, carried on from the Intel 8086 chip in the 80s, tried to keep as much backwards compatibility with existing technology. The band-aids kept being applied. While x86 has come a long way in 2022, it had a wake up call. It no longer was the end all, be all. ARM could do what it did, but more efficient. So what did x86 do to change? Well, it didn’t really need to. Software was the one who took notice…

Software took a very big turn at this time. Programs no longer focused on taking advantage of a large desktop PC, they focused on being as small and efficient as possible. You no longer had spinning hard drives with large GB capacity. You had flash memory that was in the MB. Hardware was placing heavy constraints on software to power these new interactions with technology. Libraries were smaller. Programs had to be more streamlined. With this, your desktop PC experienced a rebirth. No longer was anyone concerned with continuous leaps in technology, but rather software to be more compact. If you remember the problems with Chrome Random Access Memory, it was a wake up call for everyone to cut down bloat with software.

So in 2022, what is the focus? What is more advanced? Well, we are at a new renaissance because of a new obstacle. Supply Shortage. Because of the new supply problems created by COVID-19, technology is more expensive to produce and sell. What has come of this? AMD, a processor company, has now added support to previous platforms for new processors not previously supported. (X370 chipset to 5000-series processors) Nvidia, a graphics processor company, reusing older technology to keep up with demand. (RTX 2060 from 2 years ago is now being manufactured again.) Because of new constraints on this, software companies have now had to work around this. Microsoft is introducing Windows 11, which requires a TPM (Trust-Platform Module). They have walked this back to help support older systems going forward. Video games are having to support multiple older platforms due to scarcity of newer consoles. (Games running on PS4 and PS5.) It has learned from the efficient days to a time of compatibility again. It must support as many platforms as possible, while also keeping streamlined to run on older platforms.

If you are looking inward on the situation, software right now is way ahead of hardware at the moment. It is at the moment being as flexible as possible to hardware in its current state. As far as even being able to pipe ultra-streamlined products virtually. (Remote Desktops and Cloud gaming) Hardware for most of the time has lead the way while Moore’s law was king. It seems like for the last few years, software has taken that crown.