[ajdlinux]

This analogy is completely broken, obviously.

But off-topic: I wonder what computers would look like if there _were_ arbitrary restrictions like that. What directions would we have pursued in microarchitecture, distributed systems, etc etc if there was a regulation capping clock speed or number of transistors, or a rule that made it illegal to have asymmetric network connections?

[clarry]

Look at mobile CPUs? What limits them might have arised naturally, but it's still quite arbitrary (battery life, cooling capacity).

[bharam]

Enlighten me. How is the analogy broken?

[rpmisms]

Electronic devices != giant diesel engines with very very specific use cases.

[undersuit]

A faster computer can shutdown or enter a lower power mode earlier. The base power draw of a computer hardly changes if you replace just the processor with a faster clocked one.