Re: Microsoft finally acknowledges the security drumbeats

From: Marty Fouts (usenet-user@usa.net)
Date: 02/24/02 

From: Marty Fouts <usenet-user@usa.net>
Date: 24 Feb 2002 08:42:45 -0800

Jeffrey Siegal <jbs@quiotix.com> writes:

> Marty Fouts wrote:

> >>Designing and building are two different things. If it were the
> >>case that every MSEE could design a modern x86 CPU, they could do
> >>it and then sell the design to some chip manufacturer. I don't
> >>believe it is the case, any more than every MSCS could design a
> >>Windows clone. They probably have most if not all of the
> >>necessary knowledge to do so, but the scale of the effort is
> >>simply too large for one person to do in a reasonable period of
> >>time.
> >
> > You've moved from whether or not the individuals have the skill to
> > whether or not they have the time.
>
> I think we agree on this. Someone else was claiming that an
> individual could design a program, but not design a modern CPU. My
> argument (which I think is the same as yours) is that the real
> barrier is time and resources, not skill and knowledge. Even if
> someone doesn't have the necessary skill and knowledge, with enough
> time and basic intelligence, they can learn it.

Yes, we seem to agree on that much, although I believe that the time
and resources needed to design CPUs may be smaller than people
commonly expect.

It does take hundreds of people multiple years to design the most
complex CPUs that sit on the leading edge, but it takes similar
numbers of people to design equivalently complex software systems and
software of a given complexity almost always takes more time than
hardware of similar complexity.

Marty

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