We introduce a performance metric, normalized time, which is closely related to such measures as the area-time product of VLSI theory and the price / performance ratio of advertising literature. This metric captures the idea of a piece of hardware “pulling its own weight,” i.e. contributing as much to performance as it costs in resources. We then prove general theorems for stating when the size of a given part is in balance with its utilization, and give specific formulas for commonly found linear and quadratic devices. We also apply these formulas to an analysis of a specific processor element, and discuss the implications for bit-serial vs word-parallel, RISC vs CISC, and VLIW designs.