Considering that the author works at Google, where they build their own distributed databases, file systems, and even the servers themselves...

I guess the knowledge required there is not quite typical to what

you'd expect from your everyday programmer...

Btw, C# Parallel extensions and DirectX (and now WPF) shaders kind of

remind me the days I was writing graphics in assembler (especially shaders..)

I think I agree with Jeff that having knowledge about how the hardware works is a good thing. I think it helps debugging problems and understanding limitations. I don't think that you have to know everything about computers to write good code (that's impossible) but I do think it's a good thing to have as accurate a mental model of the machine that you're working on as possible.

I certainly have needed to know how the hardware was used.  There are non real-time applications that are still perf-critical (web browsers, encoders, basically most enterprise-class software).  Further, as Helen says, it can really help with some confusing debug issues.  And it's when a problem crops up that needs hardware knowledge <i>but you don't even know it needs hardware knowledge</i> that you need this.

Still, I would agree that there are large classes of problems where sophisticated hardware knowledge is inessential.

And I also basically disagree with Jeff's post in that I don't think he gains a lot of hardware knowledge by selecting different parts to build a computer (although some of the background research may betray underlying principles if you steer clear of marketing sites and gamer/enthusiast forums).

Ens, you raise a valid point here:

Understanding how the CPU works internally and how it interacts with the BUS has nothing to do with assembling a computer.

There are some things a good developer SHOULD know

Eh... everyone wants you to know something different. Many things can be valuable in the right context and useless in others. Talked with a few MS recruiters recently. They seem to be huge on threading, data structures, and algorithms and wouldn't have given a damn about hardware knowledge. Read an article the other day where a dude was saying that you have to know how to build your own compilers and diagnose hardware bugs. You can't learn it all in one day. Every bit helps, but damn... the more I know, the more I know I don't know.

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