In this blog post, we will examine which of the two plays a more important role in the development of smart devices.
Recently, the importance of smart devices has been rapidly increasing. It is difficult to find a device in our daily lives that does not have the word “smart” attached to it, such as smartphones, smart TVs, smart watches, and smart homes. The smartphone, which Apple first successfully popularized, is now sweeping the world, and electronics companies such as Samsung and LG are rushing to develop new types of smart devices such as smart TVs. The development of smart devices has gone beyond the innovation of electronic devices and is changing our lifestyles and culture itself.
So, what are “smart electronic devices”? Simply put, they are “PC-based electronic devices.” In fact, smart devices can do almost everything that a PC can do, such as sending emails, surfing the Internet, creating documents, and playing games. Therefore, in order to make smart devices, it is necessary to have the technology to manufacture and assemble components (hardware) that are different from those used in computers, such as CPUs, RAM, and memory. The development of hardware technology that enables the complex functions of smart devices has become a core element of modern electronics. Electrical engineering is at the heart of this hardware manufacturing.
What is electrical engineering? Simply put, it is the study of electrical and magnetic phenomena and their applications. The history of electrical engineering began when Volta invented the voltaic pile, which can be considered the first battery, and numerous scientists, including Faraday, published papers on electrical phenomena. In its early stages, electrical engineering was simply the study of electrical phenomena, but as it developed, it expanded into various application fields such as communications, power, control, and semiconductors. This expansion plays an important role in meeting the diverse technological needs of modern society.
Electrical engineering is divided into so many different fields that it is difficult to explain exactly what it is. The field of communications studies electrical signals such as radio waves, enabling mobile communications and the Internet. The field of semiconductors designs and manufactures semiconductors, which can be considered the brain of computers, and uses them to create various types of memory and CPUs. In addition, the control field controls the input and output of various devices and systems, and the power field is responsible for the production and distribution of electricity, which is essential for our daily lives. The electrical field also creates circuits that control the flow of electric current. Each of these fields plays an essential role in the development of modern electronic devices and ensures the stability and performance of the devices we use every day.
Electrical engineering and computer engineering are closely related. In fact, electrical engineering and computer engineering students at our university are assigned to the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering in their first year and take the same classes. Although they change departments in their second year, many of the courses they take are similar. However, electrical engineering and computer engineering are strictly different. To explain the difference with computers as an example, computer engineering mainly studies computer software, while electrical engineering mainly studies computer hardware. In addition, the two disciplines maintain a complementary relationship with the advancement of technology and play an important role in creating new technological innovations.
Smart devices are not made from hardware alone. Making a smart device from hardware alone is like making steamed buns from flour without red beans. In addition to hardware, smart devices require software, which is the program that runs on the device. The reason why Apple’s iPhone was such a huge success worldwide is not simply because it was the first smartphone. The first smartphone was developed by IBM and called “Simon,” and Nokia and Microsoft developed smartphones before Apple. However, these smartphones were not as successful as the iPhone. The reason was that although they had many features, they did not have an operating system to match and the user interface was inconvenient. In short, the software aspect was weak. However, when Apple introduced the iPhone with an operating system and UI optimized for smartphones, smartphones became a huge hit worldwide. In addition, Apple has been praised for creating a new ecosystem by establishing a system called the App Store, where developers can freely create and upload mobile applications and users can freely download the applications they want. This system greatly improved the user experience and maximized the convenience and efficiency of smartphone use. And as seen in the case of Google, a software company with a search engine and Android OS, acquiring Motorola, a hardware company, the importance of software is increasing in the IT industry.
However, software does not exist independently without hardware. If software is developed that is not compatible with the hardware environment, it will inevitably cause many problems and naturally alienate users. Therefore, an understanding of hardware is necessary to create good software. This interaction shows that technological advancement is not achieved through the development of a single field, but rather through the organic combination of hardware and software to create new innovations.
One field of electronic engineering is computer engineering. In computer engineering, students study various programming languages such as C and C++, which are taught in computer science, as well as algorithms and computer architecture, which are necessary for designing the basic structure of programs. In other words, although computer engineering is a field of electronic engineering, it focuses on the software aspect. As such, electronics involves in-depth research and development not only in hardware but also in software, and it is the combination of these various studies that enables the complex and sophisticated operation of modern smart devices.
So far, we have focused on the hardware aspects of electronic engineering, but in fact, electronic engineering involves research on both hardware and software through various fields. For example, electronic engineering plays an important role in advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI). In addition to providing the hardware foundation for implementing AI algorithms, software development for the efficient operation of AI is also one of the major research areas in electronics. In this sense, electronics can be said to be the driving force behind the smart world of the future. With the advancement of smart devices, the importance of electronics is increasing, and it will be the driving force behind technological innovation and development in the future.
