Bell System 1922 "computer logic" 4267

You are being overly simplistic and naive.

The economics of the hardware that implements the logic drives many design decisions which not only influence the "bottom" of the design but percolate all the way to the top by not only determining economics but by putting blinders on the implementor that make it impossible to see the clever way of solving a problem (because in fact there often is no clever way to do it in a given technology while there is in another).

For example, in relay logic the cheapness of "contacts" relative to "coils" drives one to a form of logic implemented through "iterative networks" that are remarkably efficient at determinations that are substantially more obtuse when done with any other approach. A common example is "light up the light if exactly five of the fifteen buttons are pressed". With iterative networks the resulting design is elegant, efficient, and economical. Done with AND and OR gates though, solutions are obtuse and inelegant.

Or look at the way vital logic is done with old-fashioned vital relays and with modern vital microprocessors. They are both elegant ways of achieving similar goals, but far from simply the same AND and OR gates implemented in relay and then solid state logic.

I may be the exception rather than the rule, in that my day job involves both modern computers and relay logic. Yes they can be done elegantly and cleverly, but not at all in the same ways!

Tim.