12 Apr
2006
12 Apr
'06
10:16 p.m.
I did not say that engineers could not think, or were
incapable of
thinking, or anything like that. I said, basically, that engineers no
longer thought about problems, they threw computer power at them.
Which is, alas, the only way to make a modern 50M gate chip. You'd spend
a lifetime analyzing all the signals, load levels , clock delays etc.
[And no, I am not happy about this, and I'll bet most good engineers
aren't eitehr. But apparently it's better to save $0.01 on each product
than to make a good quality device that you could sell for $10 more.
That 50M gate
chip sells, in quantity, for 3$, so yes the $0.01 becomes
important. Charging $10 is a commercial impossibility.
Economics is an integral and important part of engineering.
I do not accept the advertising lies
that a CAD system will turn anyone into a good engineer. It won't.
That is, of
course, true.
Jos