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From: mjl@tropix.UUCP (Mike Lutz)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: brash micros versus the Big Iron: not yet
Message-ID: <287@tropix.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 31-Dec-69 18:59:59 EDT
Article-I.D.: tropix.287
Posted: Wed Dec 31 18:59:59 1969
Date-Received: Sun, 6-Sep-87 05:54:06 EDT
References: <622@winchester.UUCP> <12953@amdahl.amdahl.com> <630@winchester.UUCP> <1202@pdn.UUCP> <640@winchester.UUCP> <1221@pdn.UUCP> <649@winchester.UUCP>
Reply-To: mjl@tropix.UUCP (Mike Lutz)
Organization: GCA/Tropel Div. Rochester, NY 14450
Lines: 31

In article <649@winchester.UUCP> mash@winchester.UUCP (John Mashey) writes:
>In article <1221@pdn.UUCP> alan@pdn.UUCP (0000-Alan Lovejoy) writes:
>>Obviously, it is necessary to find the optimum balance between these to
>>conflicting constraints.  I would like to see a mathematical proof
>>or theory that could demonstrate or discover just what that balance is.
>>Without it, machine designers are little more that artists, not
>>engineers.
>
>I doubt there is a closed mathematical solution to this problem,
>(if there were, the optimal machines would be designed already!),
>but there is an iterative process that has been used at various places,
>and is by now pretty well-known: ... description of the method follows ...

John hit the nail on the head.  Most engineers I know, whether working
with hardware or software, do not deal with problems having closed
mathematical solutions.  Successful engineering requires judgement,
insight, creativity, and even a sense of the elegant and aesthetic.
What separates engineering from pure art, however, is that these
qualities are based on rational, scientific models of the system under
investigation, and such models are in turn informed by mathematics,
natural sciences, and in many cases, by "soft sciences" such as
psychology.

Indeed, if a problem has a closed mathematical solution, then who needs
engineers at all?  Crank the numbers through a the formula, and voila!
the optimal answer appears!

Those interested in pursuing the view of engineering put forth in this
note should read Florman's "The Existential Pleasures of Engineering."

Mike L(a,b