[gukjoon]

I've always thought that this criticism didn't make sense. Improvements in software are highly dependent on improvements in hardware: http://prog21.dadgum.com/29.html What would have once taken incredible software engineering skills is now trivial. Hardware is a big constraint on software development. How can you possibly expect software and hardware development to be neck and neck?

[thaumaturgy]

Improvement in hardware promotes laziness in software development.

[gukjoon]

Hahahha maybe.

But maybe it's a good thing we don't have to churn butter anymore, right? Improvements in technology mean that we don't have to deal with the low level stuff that's been done a million times before, allowing us to focus on high level stuff that nobody's done.

[a-priori]

Maybe in the general case (i.e, most software development), but in the special case (i.e, high performance computing, which this falls under), more powerful hardware begets more powerful software.

[ericwan]

It also means we can do more with less. =)