Field Guide · concept

Also known as: hardware spectrum

The hardware spectrum is the full range of computing hardware, ordered by how much power, cost, and direct control each tier gives you.1

cloud / servermicrocontroller more power, cost, scale ←→ smaller, cheaper, closer to the world
From a rented slice of a data center down to a chip running one job.

Overview

Running from the high-power end down, the tiers are roughly: cloud computing and web hosting → VPS → dedicated server → home server → desktop → laptop → tablet and smartphone → single-board computer → microcontroller.

Why it matters

A useful split cuts across the spectrum: general-purpose computers run many different programs and usually carry an operating system, while embedded computers do one fixed job, often with no OS at all. Choosing a tier is a trade between power and cost on one side and size, efficiency, and physical closeness to the world on the other. GopherTrunk runs across most of it — from a full server down to a single-board computer sitting by the antenna.

Sources

  1. Classes of computers — Wikipedia, on the range of computer sizes and roles. ↩

See also

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