The best hardware guy I know (by a lot) barely does any software - doesn't know (or have) C, but has been known to do a quick-and-dirty BASIC program when he has to. He does however understand low-level software and how it relates to hardware very well - he has an uncanny abiilty to find the lowest cost way to implement something and still make it "reasonable" from a software point of view. [I'm officially a software guy, but I have 3 scopes and a couple of soldering stations (even a desoldering station) - but I do agree: most software guys I know are not like that] Regards, Dave -- dave04a (at) Dave Dunfield dunfield (dot) Firmware development services & tools: www.dunfield.com com Vintage computing equipment collector. http://www.parse.com/~ddunfield/museum/index.html