Computer report I: Hard-soft tradeoffs: Large-scale integrated gates and read-only memories are displacing software from many of its traditional roles

LSI circuits can economically provide computer functions that would otherwise be performed by software. Two all-hardware computer systems, SYMBOL and HP-35 calculator, are discussed as key examples of the extent to which hardware has been finding new roles in computing. But the role of hardware is also increasing in many more-conventional computer systems.