As I look at my new AMD Turion™ processor-powered laptop, I am struck by two questions:

1.  Which is better for plowing a field: an ox and a horse or
2,000 chickens?

2. Which is better, an economy seat or a first-class seat?

The answer to both is the same. It all depends on the experience you want. 

Personally, for the first question, I would choose the ox and the horse over 2,000 chickens, because doing so would yield a much better experience. For the fliers among us, although both seats land at the same time, I would mostly prefer to sit in first class as opposed to economy class, for experiential reasons that need no explanation. Although it would clearly be cheaper to go chicken and economy, the experience, like most things in life, is a mixture of things.

Let’s consider the laptop or desktop you are using today. What about it defines the experience you have? Is it the speed of the processor? The size of the screen? The picture on your desktop? It is probably all these things and more. 

For years, research showed that there were many different types of users. Different types of users were classified by names such as “the gamer,” “the productivity worker” and the “enthusiast.” The implication was that you could define a machine by the primary use it was going to be put to. The gamers needed graphics processing speed; the productivity workers needed to open their spreadsheets faster; and the enthusiasts needed, well, the fastest thing they could get their hands on.

The latest research makes new and different observations.
Although gamers will always want a faster frame rate, now they want higher frame rates on multiple screens. Productivity workers don’t need to open their spreadsheet any faster; what they now want is to show results with better clarity, and in multicolor. Finally the enthusiasts: They’re off encoding MP3s while simultaneously editing video with HD codecs. Although each of us may relate to all of them, the single largest change I’ve witnessed over the last few years is the move away from scrutinizing just one element in a system, such as the processor speed, and toward quantifying the total experience we have with that system. 

Bit by bit, the people who bring you those laptops and desktops are starting to understand this and are architecting solutions that
enable this newly-sought-after, often visual, experience. But for these suppliers, there is a challenge. Is this new visual experience to be brought to you with a faster central processor or a faster graphics card? Can you achieve the throughput required with more memory or a faster front-side bus? Is it the ox and the horse or the 2,000 chickens? Must one always fly first class, or is it sometimes acceptable—even advantageous—to fly economy?

The answer is, of course, a mixture: a fusing of central processing power and graphics processing power, mixed with an architecture designed to enable throughput. A balanced system designed from the very beginning with the purpose of enabling our work and giving us the experience we need. 

So, although first class is nice, I actually fly economy most of the time. But I have to admit I’ve never plowed a field with an ox and a horse, let alone 2,000 chickens.