Codesign Hardware and Software

Bryan Cantrill (CTO of Oxide Computer Company) advocates for codesigning hardware and software together rather than treating them as separate concerns.

The Philosophy

Traditional computing separates hardware and software teams. Oxide's approach is to design both simultaneously, allowing each to inform the other. When you control the full stack, you can make fundamentally different — and better — design decisions.

Key Ideas

• Hardware informs software: When you know exactly what hardware you're running on, you can optimize software in ways that are impossible on general-purpose platforms
• Software informs hardware: Understanding software requirements lets you make smarter hardware trade-offs
• Full-stack ownership: Eliminates the friction and compromises that come from organizational boundaries
• Oxide Computer Company: A practical embodiment of this philosophy — building rack-scale computers where hardware and software are designed as one