Overhead

There are lots of things that can be done with computers if you don't mind waiting hours and hours for results or spending a lot of money on a high-speed system. Only with advances in chip development, microprocessor speed, and storage mechanisms has it become possible to implement many programming dreams. Any information can be stored - but video, for instance, demands massive amounts of processing power on a constant basis. Sorting records can take a long time too. But as time has passed, the price of processing has dropped, and MIPS become cheaper. Overhead remains, but the cost is lower and programmers are freer to experiment.