Hi Houston

PMFJI

>>http://techupdate.zdnet.com/techupdate/stories/main/Charles_Simonyi_creates_software_intentionally.html
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>I thought it was mediocre until I got to “Semiconductors didn't improve … performance by exhorting workers to do a better job, wash their hands more often or put in longer hours. It was accomplished by mechanizing a greater and greater portion of the process” – then I stopped reading.
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>When we get to the first factual piece of text and it is just plain wrong I found I lost all motivation to continue reading.

What was wrong with that statement? Aren't CPU's made by a photographic process? That means a machine is doing the work.

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>I was under the impression that increases in computing power were primarily a result of:
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> - Increased number of bits being processed concurrently, which in its simplest form can be thought of as the transition from 8 bit, through 16 and 32 to 64 bit computing
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> - Increases in clock frequency, which have been made possible by a combination of shortening the distances signals have to travel (by continuously reducing the size of components) and more sophisticated tools for managing component layout and interconnect.

Isn't this "mechanizing"? Using machines to create the product?

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>In short, improvements in performance have been accomplished through ever increasing degrees of sophistication and not through mechanizing – and I’m guessing he actually meant automation.

I believe he's referring to increased sophistication of the process of manufacturing the chips.