Empirical study of the evolving PC technology system and the measurement of its performance divide

Abstract

Maximizing the performance evolution of a technology system relies on optimizing investments in the appropriate sub-systems. This approach subsequently minimizes the impact of a sub-system that trails in technological performance and hinders systemic development, referred to as the reverse salient. In this paper, we developed a performance gap and a time gap measure to analyze reverse salience and applied this measurement technique to an empirical study of the personal computer (PC) technology systempsilas graphics processing unit (GPU) and PC game sub-systems with special focus on the systempsilas overall computational performance in game play. Our measurements of the temporal behavior of reverse salience with the above measures indicate that the PC game sub-system is the reverse salient, continuously trailing behind the technological performance of the GPU sub-system from 1996 through 2006. Additionally, our results highlight the fact that whereas the time gap measure reveals a fairly consistent three-year period of the PC game sub-system closing the performance differential to the GPU sub-system, the performance gap measure shows an increasing disparity between the sub-systems over the same period. We discuss our empirical findings by elaborating on possible underlying causes and by providing managerial implications.