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Hardware or Software Major?

Posted by Cliff on from the which-direction-to-take dept.

fa1uzure asks: "Recently, there have been many articles on Slashdot about the lack of people enrolling in IT courses in post-secondary, as well as the need for more people in these areas. Being a Computer Science student, this is great news for me, meaning I may be in demand in the future. But CS at WLU is essentially a software-only course, as it is in many other universities around the world. In most of these articles, it generally says that the IT industry is loosing the new graduates, but it does not specify which area of IT is most at risk. As I move into my second year, I would like to know, are hardware people going to be far more in demand than the software people, or would software still be a better choice than a hardware-centred degree? I could easily transfer to a hardware oriented program but would like to know in which direction the future is moving before I make any choices."

6 of 574 comments (clear)

  1. Re:There are 3 things to consider in a degree... by RailGunner · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Or, take a Computer Science and Engineering degree like I did. Currently, I develop software, but if I needed to go into hardware I have the educational background that I could do it if necessary.

    Plus, knowing how the underlying hardware works will allow you to write much more efficient code.

  2. Re:Agreed. by PooR_IndiaN · · Score: 5, Interesting


    I was not so interested in the sorts of semi-skilled professions of coding and systems administrations.

    Come Again ?!?

  3. Re:There are 3 things to consider in a degree... by jazman_777 · · Score: 3, Interesting
    so the more general you go, the easier it is to find something somewhere

    As a generalist, you learn less and less about more and more, until you eventually know nothing about everything. OTOH as a specialist, you learn more and more about less and less until you know everything about nothing.

    --
    Slashdot: Failed Car Analogies. Amateur Lawyering. Anecdote Battles.
  4. Re:Easy. by Zordak · · Score: 3, Interesting
    If you want to be really tough to outsource, get a security clearance. Classified work doesn't go to India. Plus, if you get to work on something like ICBMs or satellites, you can honestly say "Why yes, I am a rocket scientist."

    Another advantage to EE instead of CS is if you decide that you want to hit law school so you can make a really obscene salary as a patent attorney, you will be able to take the UPTO patent bar. Many CS majors are not eligible to sit for the patent bar (your CS degree has to be ABET accredited, and many -- or even most -- aren't).

    --

    Today's Sesame Street was brought to you by the number e.
  5. Re:There are 3 things to consider in a degree... by RailGunner · · Score: 4, Interesting
    unless your code is in assembly...

    As a matter of fact, some of it is.

    For example - how much faster do you think it would be to use the SSE2 16 byte registers to memcpy() instead of the C stdlib way of doing it byte by byte? Answer? A *LOT* faster. Which is good if you're moving a lot of data real time.

  6. I *did* a hardware-focussed degree by cowbutt · · Score: 3, Interesting
    I studied CS (Systems Architecture) from 1992-1995. At the time I entered, the x86 PC was popular, but not dominant - there were M68K Amigas, Macs, STs and Suns. There were SGI and DEC MIPS machines. Sun, Fujitsu and Solborne were pushing SPARC. The DEC Alpha was the hotrod processor. And the British-designed Transputer CPU looked like an interesting idea for massively parallel systems.

    By the time I came out, the writing was pretty much on the wall, and these days, you just throw x86 boxes at the problem (as long as heat or power aren't a concern, anyway).

    Don't get me wrong; knowing how computers work from the metal up is very handy and quite fulfilling (in the same ways that Physics is), but unless you're good enough (and want) to work for Intel, AMD, nVidia or some other major designer, architecture (as typified by novel designs) seems dead.

    On the upside, embedded still seems OK, and should only improve - especially in the low-power portable segment. Also, electronics guys seem to have real problems getting their heads around software at times, so that might be another avenue to explore.