10th March 2006, 3:26 PM
PCs aren't very well standardized, but there are some standards they have to match. There are a million PC clones, but if they were all truly different, software could ONLY work on one machine and none of the others. Standardization can lead to some outdated architecture, that's a problem that is dealt with over time. For example, it has taken a long time for PCs to move to something other than the old BIOS standard, but they are. PCs are a better example of standardization than one may realize. That's why I can play all my computer games on my computer even though I have much different hardware than a lot of them may have been designed for. DirectX is another example of a standard.
Standardization does not mean "doesn't change". It just means when someone makes something, they make it so it conforms with a standard set. This standard set is upgraded over time.
The best hands to place a standard in are the open community. It is never good if a standard is left in the hands of one company. So, for example, the DirectX standard may eventually be replaced with something more "open". The idea of an open standard is it is upgraded by consensus among a lot of people highly involved in it, rather than just at the deem of a single owner.
If all consoles met a standard, the standard would likely be a lot stricter than the current accepted PC standard, but the idea is simply that any time the standard was to be updated, it would be by consensus of the companies involved. The market would be clamoring for something more, and it would be in all the companies involved in deciding the standard's interests to update the standard.
Standardization does not mean "doesn't change". It just means when someone makes something, they make it so it conforms with a standard set. This standard set is upgraded over time.
The best hands to place a standard in are the open community. It is never good if a standard is left in the hands of one company. So, for example, the DirectX standard may eventually be replaced with something more "open". The idea of an open standard is it is upgraded by consensus among a lot of people highly involved in it, rather than just at the deem of a single owner.
If all consoles met a standard, the standard would likely be a lot stricter than the current accepted PC standard, but the idea is simply that any time the standard was to be updated, it would be by consensus of the companies involved. The market would be clamoring for something more, and it would be in all the companies involved in deciding the standard's interests to update the standard.
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)