Re: Best Quote on Computer Architecture?

On Sep 27, 10:50 am, r...@xxxxxxxx (Rob Warnock) wrote:
Paul A. Clayton <paaronclay...@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
+---------------
| "The cheapest, fastest and most reliable components of a computer
| system are those that aren't there."
|
| Gordon Bell
+---------------

Well, the way I heard it, he said, "The best part of a design is the
part that isn't there." But in any case, Bell's version [whichever
version that is] is but one of a long series of similar sentiments
which, AFAICT, seem to trace back to this one:

"Il semble que la perfection soit atteinte non quand il n'y a
plus rien a ajouter, mais quand il n'y a plus rien a retrancher."
(Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add,
but when there is nothing left to take away.) [1]
-- Antoine de Saint-Exupery
[in Terre des Hommes (1939), Ch. III: "L'Avion", p. 60]

Other variations I've heard:

"Simplify and add lightness"
-- Formula-I racecar designer's creed
[per John C Alderman, who drove them for a brief period]

Said by Colin Chapman, founder of Lotus Engineering. A philosophy he
held to was not to over-engineer. A possibly apocryphal Chapman story;
when asked how he designed his ultra light monocoque racing chassis,
he stated that he subtracted parts until it collapsed, whereupon he
would add back the last piece he'd removed and declare it complete.


"Simplicity, then add lightness"
-- William B. Stout, Ford Motor Company
(Formerly Stout Metal Airplane Company)

"The most beautiful things in the world are those
from which all excess weight has been removed.
-- Henry Ford

-Rob

[1] From <http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Antoine_de_Saint-Exup%C3%A9ry>

-----
Rob Warnock <r...@xxxxxxxx>
627 26th Avenue <URL:http://rpw3.org/>
San Mateo, CA 94403 (650)572-2607


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Relevant Pages

  • Re: Best Quote on Computer Architecture?
    ... A possibly apocryphal Chapman story; ... "Simplicity, then add lightness" ... -- William B. Stout, Ford Motor Company ... (Formerly Stout Metal Airplane Company) ...
    (comp.arch)
  • Re: Best Quote on Computer Architecture?
    ... "Simplify and add lightness" ... "Simplicity, then add lightness" ... -- William B. Stout, Ford Motor Company ... (Formerly Stout Metal Airplane Company) ...
    (comp.arch)
  • Re: Best Quote on Computer Architecture?
    ... -- William B. Stout, Ford Motor Company ... (Formerly Stout Metal Airplane Company) ... And a perhaps apocryphal quote from Cray just before leaving CDC, "you don't know your wood either!" ...
    (comp.arch)