An `AI in Design' View of Design
General Description

Hardware Support

What type of hardware is needed to run the system?

e.g., workstations, PCs, mainframes, LISP-machines, etc.

Discussion. The hardware requirements reflect the amount of computational power needed to solve the task. The more complex the system, the more likely it is to rely on high-performance hardware.

Is it a portable system?

{fully portable, portable with minor modifications (e.g., relinking to new libraries), portable only to some systems, non-portable}

Discussion. Systems tailored to the specific characteristics of the underlying hardware run more efficiently. However, their portability to other platforms is limited. Highly portable systems rely on intermediary software layers, which slow down the execution, but also ``hide'' the machine characteristics.

Up : Next

/Papers/IJDC/sect2.4.html  			Thu May 22 22:13:24 EDT 1997