I don't quite understand the principle behind all this HDR malarkey.

I am really into photography so I do have an understanding of what High Dynamic Range is, and has been around for years. Not once have you ever required extra or new hardware to take or make an HDR image, I don't understand why new hardware is now required? HDR can essentially be boiled down to post processing, surely this can be manipulated by software or even processing power, don't see why new screens are now required. I use the same screen to view an HDR image I have made.