Hardware vs. software minimization

[gannon]

So, which is better?
Working on a project right now and have been thinking of different methods I can go about. Looks like I can reduce the software by generating some signals based off of other signals, but would require a lot of extra hardware it seems (one line should have a pulse at clock / 8 * # of units)
I'm no electrician, so I was going to go about this with a counter and mux on each board, sending the a pulse to the next board when clock / 8 is reached, then have a loop back.
Seems for something so simple software is more ideal and lower cost, but just an example

[jdmlight]

So, which is better?
Working on a project right now and have been thinking of different methods I can go about. Looks like I can reduce the software by generating some signals based off of other signals, but would require a lot of extra hardware it seems (one line should have a pulse at clock / 8 * # of units)
I'm no electrician, so I was going to go about this with a counter and mux on each board, sending the a pulse to the next board when clock / 8 is reached, then have a loop back.
Seems for something so simple software is more ideal and lower cost, but just an example

That depends. Which do YOU have to maintain?

If you have to maintain the hardware, make that more minimal.

If you have to maintain the software, make that more minimal.


If you have to maintain both, think about the goals of the project in general - for example, in the context of this forum, hardware minimization would be better for portablizing reasons.