1) Hard computing, i.e., conventional computing, requires a precisely stated analytical model and often a lot of computation time. Soft computingdiffers from conventional (hard) computing in that, unlike hard computing, it is tolerant of imprecision, uncertainty, partial truth, and approximation. In effect, the role model for soft computing is the human mind.

2) Hard computing based on binary logic, crisp systems, numerical analysis and crisp software but soft computingbased on fuzzy logic, neural nets and probabilistic reasoning.

3) Hard computing has the characteristics of precision and categoricity and the soft computing, approximation and dispositionality. Although in hard computing, imprecision and uncertainty are undesirable properties, in soft computing the tolerance for imprecision and uncertainty is exploited to achieve tractability, lower cost, high Machine Intelligence Quotient (MIQ) and economy of communication

4) Hard computing requires programs to be written; soft computing can evolve its own programs

5) Hard computing uses two-valued logic; soft computing can use multivalued or fuzzy logic

6) Hard computing is deterministic; soft computingincorporates stochasticity

7) Hard computing requires exact input data; soft computing can deal with ambiguous and noisy data

8) Hard computing is strictly sequential; soft computing allows parallel computations

9) Hard computing produces precise answers; soft computing can yield approximate answers