Tech is Throttling Us
By Cecilia Sepp, CAE, ACNP, LPEC
The last few weeks I’ve learned too much about technology throttling.
For years I had a reliable Surface Book tablet computer and I had it set up just the way I wanted. It did what I needed when I wanted it to, and I didn’t have to worry about anything except freeing up memory from time to time. I do a lot of videos so my hard drive fills up fast.
Earlier this year, I decided to prepare for the inevitable – having to replace my reliable Surface Book which is about 5 years old now – so I purchased a new Surface Laptop computer. I thought I would have plenty of time to transition from the old to the new.
Then, my Surface Book dragged and dragged. Things were shown as running red. I reset, rebooted, and freed up memory. It still dragged. After spending some time researching, I learned that the computer was “Thermal Throttling” meaning that it was running too hot. It turned out that the fan broke, so the system was overheating. I found a small fan and turned it on my tablet to help cool it off.
It helped but it still ran hot. The inevitable was here. I had to transition to the new laptop.
I figured out the best way to transfer all my files, added my new computer to my Microsoft account, got all the software updated, and even got the new Yeti podcast microphone working. At first, I thought that was the hardest part of the set up. But then I learned why the Snapdragon Processor works “so fast” with only 16 GB of RAM: it throttles the speed of your computer to save memory and power.
What I learned after many hours of research and testing trying to figure out why the upload wasn’t working, is that the current software environment is not keeping up with the hardware. This is a strange turn of events because it is usually the other way around.
This new hardware ecosystem also doesn’t make much sense. Why make a processor that is so fast but then slows everything down? The reason it is slowing everything down is that the new architecture is something called ARM (Advanced RISC Machine). While the Snapdragon processor works great in native ARM environments, guess what? Most software is not ARM yet.
What does that mean? It means the software has to try and translate while it is working. This causes slowdowns. It’s basically a communication issue – the hardware and the software need an interpreter. Things are getting lost in translation and it is definitely taking longer to accomplish tasks.
The Snapdragon processor will be a boon to tech users but it’s too soon. It’s an idea before it’s time because the software – which is the tool we need – isn’t ready to perform in this environment. It is causing problems with uploads and productivity.
I’m not a tech expert, but I’m a high-end user. If you are like me and willing to invest in the best hardware you can get, you are likely excited to get a new computer. But if you have a new laptop that is supposed to be really fast but isn’t, you are not alone with your frustration with the Snapdragon processor. I don’t know whose idea this new technology was, but it isn’t working very well in practice.
The next question: will the software and hardware be able to talk to each other before I throttle my new computer?
