Ask Slashdot: How Many (Electronics) Gates Is That Software Algorithm? 365
dryriver writes "We have developed a graphics algorithm that got an electronics manufacturer interested in turning it into hardware. Here comes the problematic bit... The electronics manufacturer asked us to describe how complex the algorithm is. More specifically, we were asked 'How many (logic) gates would be needed to turn your software algorithm into hardware?' This threw us a bit, since none of us have done electronics design before. So here is the question: Is there a piece of software or another tool that can analyze an algorithm written in C/C++ and estimate how many gates would be needed to turn it into hardware? Or, perhaps, there is a more manual method of converting code lines to gates? Maybe an operation like 'Add' would require 3 gates while an operation like 'Divide' would need 6 gates? Something along those lines, anyway. To state the question one more time: How do we get from a software algorithm that is N lines long and executes X number of total operations overall, to a rough estimate of how many gates this algorithm would use when translated into electronic hardware?"
How many (Score:3, Funny)
beowulf clusters does your algorithm desire?
Just like any other software project (Score:5, Funny)
Make up a number, then when they complain that it was way off, blame it on their management changing scope a hundred times throughout the life of the project!
Minecraft (Score:5, Funny)
Easy calculation (Score:5, Funny)
Here is a proven method for calculation.
If your code is:
a) C: divide the number of lines with 7
b) C++: divide the number of lines with 5
c) Ruby/Python/Java: divide the number of lines with 3
d) Perl: multiply the number of lines with 42
e) C#: resign.
Sounds like a joke (Score:5, Funny)
One. His name is Bill, and here is yours.
Re:Holy crap (Score:5, Funny)
And to think, they rejected my Ask Slashdot submission on how to find a cheat code on my bank's web site for unlimited moneys
Just walk up to any ATM and press: up up down down left right left right B A start.
Re:Why don't they know? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Just like any other software project (Score:4, Funny)
Made me think of this [dilbert.com].