Homework Help!

[Sharon_41]

I am taking an online college course, introduction to computers. I have encountered the following. First will be the question I am supposed to answer, then my request for clarification, then the teachers answer which confused me even further.

Is it Beneficial to Have Diversity in the Design of Key Computer Components?
In Today's economy. Diversity is in everything in the market. Chapter 9 discusses Hardware Design in detail. I would like for you to think about whether there should be some level of standards in the market of computer components. Explain Why or Why not there is an advantage to standardization of computer components. What level of impact does it have on the average consumer either way?

(just FYI, chapter 9 discussed binary code, CPUs, clock speed, cache memory, RAM, GPU and buses)
I asked:
I don't fully understand this question. Should we talk about hardware only? I'm not sure what "standardization" means in this case. Making everything compatable, or with the same specifications?

Then teacher replied:
Standardization means that the design engineers followed the same rules when designing the components. When you see that the standards are IEEE 802.1 these are standards. Does that clear it up for you. -Prof. J

HUH?
I am not looking for free help with homework here. I have 100% in this class, so this won't affect my grade even if I don't answer it. I just want to understand.

Any thoughts?

 

[buwish]

I believe the prof. is getting at standards by way of say SATA, IEEE (like he mentioned), ATX (power supplies), etc... The question is then, would it be beneficial for the computer industry in general to have different standards for the same parts?

For example, what is NVIDIA manufactured their graphics cards to run on something else besides PCI-E and ATI manufactured theirs to run on PCI-E? Those with a preference towards NVIDIA would be forced to look for "standard" equipment that could run their graphics cards. Obviously, this isn't beneficial to NVIDIA, it's fans, or the computer industry in general.

Try thinking along those lines.

 

[sminlal]

There's no a "Right" answer to this question. Standardization and innovation are opposites, and both have benefits and drawbacks. I think what your teacher is looking for is an answer that acknowledges and explains this dichotomy.