So how varied can hardware be? You would be surprized, hardware is a generic term which covers many systems not just servers or computers.

One of the most interesting hardware platforms, to the geeks reading this, has to be commercial telephone systems. The hardware is different, the language is alien to the uninitiated and the technology is confusing. The largest switch company in the world has to be Dialogic. The challenges of programming telephone softswitches has resulted in a handful of programmers in the U.S. who have intimate knowledge of these sophiticated systems. The software requirements are almost impossible to attain, extremely fast and efficient, total reliability 99.999% uptime and also complete redundancy, this places particularly onerous burdens on the programmer and requires a special breed. No longer is it possible to get away with any shortcuts and total reliablity must be guaranteed in other words a 100% perfect program, often refered to as "carrier grade" solutions.