GPUs are moving from video games into high performance computing in a big way since Nvidia began focusing on software and revised its hardware designs to make them easier to use.

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They make average hardware and software encased in lovely designs and sell them with a 30% to 40% markup.

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In both cases clever designs of computer hardware and software played a role.

FORBES: Side Lines

Well, Steve Jobs said the answer is simple not easy, but simple: Apple designs its hardware and its software and its Internet services to work together.

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And just as open-source programmers collaborate by sharing software code, engineers are already starting to collaborate on open-source designs for objects and hardware.

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