I can't recall whether Bill Gates uttered "I'm not a hardware kind of guy" in public or a private interview. In a search of the Microsoft site and Google, Gates frequently said he was this guy or that guy - an Elvis guy or THE guy - but I could not find his prophetic quote which I recall he said about 12-15 years ago. But his sentiments echoed the common belief that software is more precious than hardware. Few would disgaree. After all, there's been a software industry for forty years. Going as back as far as the mid-eighties companies bailed from the hardware busy to focus on the more profitable. The message? Software does the work, creates what users want and is far more flexible and inexpensive solution than hardware whose first syllable says it all - hard as in hard-wired.
Web 2.0 has racheted this notion up another notch or two. And we are seeing expressions of this today in diverse markets - from Apple's forthcoming new iPhone to test and measurement equipment. In the latter category, Synthetic Instrumention promises to make the hardware more generic and the software more powerful and customizeable. In other words, the software performs the testing instead of hardware. Frost & Sullivan just completed a report on the topic in December and National Instruments claims its new Instrumentation 2.0 embraces the concept of Synthetic Instrumention. Indeed, the Army's and Navy's Agile Rapid Global Combat Support (ARGCS) program has focused on synthetic instrumentation for more than two years with promise of saving billions.
Now let's move upstream to Apple iPhone, which addresses many of the shortcomings in today's cell phones. With too many innovations to count, the iPhone redefines the notion of cell phone - thanks to software. It has a full Safari browser (versus the WAP one on my Blackberry, which is slow, and, well, I don't use it); a novel touch screen w/ QWERTY keyboard and an user interface that humbles all rivals, MP3 player, built-in Yahoo and Google search (sorry, Bill), and, of course, video. All the applications are software-driven in that there's you, the application and whatever your finger touches. No buttons - just a 3.5 inch screen and that's where the hardware ends.
Apple doesn't start delivering the iPhone until June so we'll have to wait and see if it works as advertised. But no other company on the planet has as good a record of innovation as Apple. The timing could not be better because my current Cingular (Apple's chosen iPhone partner) contract is up in July. Might be time to re-up and drive a hard bargain in the process.
Gigabit and PoE are two networking technologies moving ahead in tandem as industrial users power remote Ethernet devices such as IP security cameras at 1,000 Mbps over existing CAT5 cable.
New disc magnet motors fit into the design trend of stepping up to closed loop performance while maintaining the cost advantage of stepper motor technology.
At the Design News webinar on June 27, learn all about aluminum extrusion: designing the right shape so it costs the least, is simplest to manufacture, and best fits the application's structural requirements.
A new battery design, which replaces lithium with abundant and low-cost elemental sulfur, is still in its nascent stages but shows real promise for giving batteries more energy potential.
From Dell / Intel® New Paradigms in Design Work Scott Hamilton, vertical market strategist for Dell Precision workstations, 5/2/2013 5
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For industrial control applications, or even a simple assembly line, that machine can go almost 24/7 without a break. But what happens when the task is a little more complex? That’s where the “smart” machine would come in. The smart machine is one that has some simple (or complex in some cases) processing capability to be able to adapt to changing conditions. Such machines are suited for a host of applications, including automotive, aerospace, defense, medical, computers and electronics, telecommunications, consumer goods, and so on. This radio show will show what’s possible with smart machines, and what tradeoffs need to be made to implement such a solution.
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