> There are ultimate physical limits on the speed of data processing,

Are there?  I mean, there are limits on how fast silicon can go, but
are there real limits on how fast /any/ material can go?

> but I don't see why there are any limits on computer programs, and
> thus no limit to software technology, even given hardware
> constraints.

Actually, there are hard limits on certain software technologies, same
as for hardware.  Comparison-based sorting can't use less than O(n
log(n)) comparisons, for example.

Of course, there are other algorithms that may or may not be faster in
your particular case, but specific technologies do possess hard limits.

Jon Cast
CS Student

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