Mike Raiford wrote:
> On 6/11/2010 6:11 AM, Invisible wrote:
> 
>> Seriously... Doing what? Everything seems to be made of off-the-shelf
>> parts (which, by definition, already exist). What's to design?
> 
> Have you ever opened an electronic gadget and peered inside? That PCB 
> isn't off the shelf.

Sure. But that isn't logic design. That's designing a PCB - an entirely 
different task.

> There may even be a customized chip on it.

Only if it's a ROM, PROM or EPROM. :-P

> For example, my Wacom Intuos3 (RIP) was waterlogged, so it was an 
> opportunity to look inside. They have a chip on the board with their 
> logo. Probably some customized DSP to translate the signals generated by 
> the stylus and tablet grid.

I found a picture online of the motherboard for a C64. There was a chip 
with the Commodore logo on it... but it was a bulk standard 6510.

> These sorts of things need design all of the time. I work for a company 
> in the construction industry. We produce software for a niche market. 
> I've worked for an industrial equipment manufacturer (a sister company) 
> those machines need electrical design, and software to make them work, 
> some of that software is actually rather involving mathematically, and a 
> portion of it requires an understanding of calculus to really get a grip 
> on how to properly set the tuning parameters.

And how many people in the entire world need to work on this software? 
3? 17? 25?

> Somebody needs to design the drives that control the motors. They may 
> even want to produce a custom CPU for those drives because an 
> off-the-shelf CPU may not fit their needs exactly.

Given the vast profusion of extremely low-cost off-the-shelf 
microcontrollers in existence, this seems highly implausible.

> Someone needs to 
> design the IO controller so each solenoid on the machine can be 
> controlled by the host system

Again, this sounds like a question of analogue rather than digital 
electronics.

> There are plenty of opportunities to apply your skills. Look at the 
> machinery at your company's lab, look at the analysis equipment. There 
> are people who design these things, and are always looking for ways to 
> improve the design, implement new features and cut costs.

Have you ever been in a real lab? ;-)

We have a special machine. It's only purpose is to shake things. But it 
must shake in a precisely-controlled, completely repeatable mannar. So 

a license to print money!


then it wouldn't be 100% repeatable, so that's no good. But then, hell, 


The most high-tech thing we have is the mass spectrometers - and that's 
about physical engineering, not fancy electronics. The next thing on the 
list is the autosamplers - but they use a Z80 CPU to control a couple of 
stepper motors. That's it. Somebody wrote the software, somebody 
designed the mechanics, but no IC design involved.

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