Understanding Software: History, Cost Drivers, and the Evolution of Architecture

At the beginning of this article, we consider what software is and how to use architectural thinking to better design and implement software.

Von Neumann architecture, Turing machine, aiming to simulate humans

Software history can be seen as the history of using machines to simulate humans. Since the Von Neumann architecture, program logic detached from hardware and adopted binary encoding, combined with storage and I/O, creating a simplified brain. The Turing machine mathematically defined computation, leading to the famous Church‑Turing thesis: any intuitively computable function can be computed by a Turing machine and vice versa. The union of hardware and software produced a programmable brain, which we now call a computer. Programs written for hardware become software that controls hardware behavior.

Cost is king

In the early days, software written in binary incurred very high costs for both hardware and software. As semiconductor technology advanced, hardware costs fell while performance rose, following Moore's law: the number of transistors on an integrated circuit roughly doubles every 18‑24 months at constant price, doubling performance. To simplify development, assembly language emerged, followed by high‑level languages such as C, C++, and Java, allowing humans to communicate with computers in more natural terms. More software engineers appeared, further reducing development costs. Computers can work continuously without rest, providing endless productivity.

People increasingly delegate tasks once performed only by humans to computers, leading to richer software that can do more at lower cost. Cost reduction drives software adoption by saving training expenses and reducing staff numbers. With the rise of the Internet, many activities moved online, lowering storefront costs and reaching larger audiences. Consequently, individuals can accomplish more work at decreasing cost, explaining the current software boom.

The role of software

As software scales, building it becomes more difficult. Early programmers wrote code mainly for personal research, improving their productivity and eventually helping others. Over time, software evolved into an independent industry where many roles collaborate to deliver a product. The discussion that follows assumes a collaborative, multi‑person development context, though the conclusions also apply to solo developers.

Before software, each person performed their own work and stored results individually, communicating face‑to‑face or by phone.

After software, daily activities are virtualized within computers, and humans interact with these virtual selves via input/output devices, completing work and communicating with others. Software’s driving force has always been to simulate human behavior and society—examples include weather forecasting, social networking, trading systems, VR, and artificial intelligence. As simulation targets become more sophisticated, the difficulty rises.

Regardless of development direction, simulating human behavior remains a major trend. Software primarily aims to virtualize human life, delivering lower‑cost, higher‑efficiency solutions, and thus functions as a cost center, giving rise to many software outsourcing firms.

Evolution of software development architecture

Software engineers are the key actors who must first understand how humans perform tasks in daily life before they can effectively simulate those tasks on a computer. However, engineers must master numerous programming languages, computer concepts, and domain knowledge, which exceeds any single individual’s capacity. Consequently, development responsibilities are divided: business analysts handle domain knowledge, architects design systems, developers implement designs, testers verify implementations, and project managers coordinate the effort. This division transforms a solitary workflow into a collaborative process, giving rise to specialized software companies.

The emergence of software architecture

Just as organizational architecture defines structure, software architecture emerged from the need to consciously split and organize code. Initially, developers wrote software haphazardly; over time, they began to partition responsibilities, creating distinct architectural styles. The driving force remains the same: improving participants’ benefits while reducing cost. Heavy workloads for engineers prompted the need to break work into manageable pieces, aligning responsibilities and authority, often requiring adjustments to organizational structure to ensure architectural adoption.

Through this brief overview of computer and software evolution, we see that software essentially virtualizes human work to lower cost and boost individual productivity, thereby serving human interests. The overwhelming responsibilities of software engineers naturally led to role specialization and a unique architectural ecosystem, all aimed at enhancing human benefit.

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