Phil Cook wrote:

>> Dude. Jumpers.
>>
>> Seriously. Jumpers.
> 
> Which I had to change to set the FSB speed;

Really??

On my motherboard, I just plugged everything in, turned it on, and it 
automatically configured itself and worked. Not one single jumper to set.

> not counting the ones on the 
> HDs for master/slave which I didn't need to look at.

SATA HDs don't have these either.

> You're right though 
> I recall racks of jumpers which had to be set to arcane precsion to get 
> things working, but it's still a testament that's the only advance you 
> can spot.

Can you think of anything else that *requires* improvement then?

>> It used to be the case that getting any new bit of hardware to work 
>> involved advanced jumper settings, twiddling dip switches and chanting 
>> over voodoo dolls. Today you can pretty much just plug in a PCI card 
>> and *expect* it to work immediately -
> 
>> or at least as soon as you put the CD in.
> 
> So the CD counts as part of the hardware then?

Depends on your definition of "works".

If you want to be able to control it, you'll need some software to do 
that. But sure, a couple of things that can be operated without software 
will work straight off...

> Describe the process for installing a CPU five/ten years ago compared to 
> doing so today.

What, you'd like the CPU to teleport itself into the socket instead? :-D

> Repeat with a video card leaving out bits you're doing 
> in software.

Remember when we all had 2 video cards and a pass-through cable to allow 
you to switch between 2D and 3D modes? ;-)

>> Anybody who remembers the old skool ways will tell you just how much 
>> of an improvement that is.
> 
> But how much is that down to an improvement in software. Windows 95 
> automatically added new hardware and sought out the drivers for it.

In the old days, things like IRQ numbers could *only* be adjusted by 
physically moving DIP switches on the circuit board. The point is that 
they CHANGED THE HARDWARE so you could change the IRQ number in 
software. THAT is what has allowed "the software to get better".

>> And let's not even get started on all those USB goodies that YOU JUST 
>> PLUG IN AND THEY GO! It wasn't like that before. Had to turn off the 
>> whole PC to connect or disconnect anything...
> 
> Again though why did the older computers need to reboot - the software 
> unable to dynamically load/unload drivers or a physical hardware aspect?

In the Old Days, if you suddenly plugged or unplugged a device, you 
would likely fry the interface circuitry. Today we use interfaces that 
are expressedly designed to support such actions. That one is purely a 
hardware thing. (Although obviously the software needs to support it too.)

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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