@Gary - Yes that is the typical demeanor of engineers and managers. But here is the lesson I learned at my first job out of college many years ago... I had to write project specifications, which were packaged for contractor fixed-price closed bidding. After selecting the lowest-bid contractor, and after the work had started, somebody in our company would want a specification modified or something new added to the effort. When I approached the contractor about it, it was always the same – "Here's how much time we'll need to extend the contract and here's your new bid for the contract modifications. Send me the contract addendum when you're ready."
Well, now it's not a contractor doing the work – it's my engineering team and me. So, it's like you said, I have to give management the same spiel as the contractors those many years ago. When I put it in those terms, suddenly it's more than just a memo from a manager telling me to add this or modify that.
@edeanda - I can't tell if you are asking about aids for following these methodologies or aids to maintain registers. So I'll answer both questions. For following these methodologies, my book has all these principles and best practices listed in them and the book includes an excel spreadsheet of the best practices so that you can track them. For maintaining registers, use a Register Design Tool that I talked about in Tuesday's lecture.
Because of the way the engineering culture is, it is often very difficult for engineers to say "no" to feature creep. Engineers tend to be introverts and managers tend to be more extroverts. Engineers need to tie the new feature requests to time and cost. What are they willing to give on? Push out the schedule or drop other features?
I'm a Systems Integration Test Enginner: I've tested both new and old versions of hardware for compatibility with New Firmware and Software prior to final release for field testing. Having to please my manager and all other team members was a fine-line in the sand. The feature creep is one that is very problematic with older hardware which we would have keep the old rev in operation for specific customers until they were able to certify tand upgrade all of the systems to the latest and greatest one. I finally had to dig through all of the system firmware and software level changes in the past to find out where it got broken and then recommend to not use that version of hardware with any newer released software versions. The cutoff point was always a difficult point with the management and sales peaople who wanted to pleease the customers by keeping the older hardware in operaition.
Thank you Gary for the Great presentation. I don't have any questions. I am already a believer of the points you made in this lecture for all my designs. I always make sure my hardware works before giving it to the SW engineers.
Gary I wonder what kind of aids being part of your methodologies processes or standards do you often follow as creating exel files for registeres or anything else ?
@GARY: Your advice on how team members can influence decision makes to INVEST in best practices. More often than not, employers are harsh on their expectations and don't want your to "waste any time" on "untangibles". Their only principle is: Just do it, and quick.
Awhile back encountered a commercial video interface device which had a completely-free-form ASIC which was essentially "booted up" and configured on-the-fly as the DSP/processor/etc -- ever encounter one of these which allows a secondary "diagnostic" bootup option?? Seems obvious, but...
ABSOLUTELY. debug hooks become second nature if you're lucky. Signal injection points using spare ASIC pins, event tracking trigger outputs off spare ASIC pins -- invaluable.
PRAISE: Most company decision makers are more concerned with the bottom line than promoting individual employee's success. They reason that the employee may ask for a raise.
Many of the "tools" equate directly to "how do you organize your efforts?"
People tend to develop their own techniques, and/or be GIVEN tools in common usage in a particular work environment.
SEEING new, good "Best Practice" quality processes and techniques is worth capturing -- THAT often becomes part of the Intellectual Property of a company...
New tools: we plan to upgrade our source control system, but that's it. We could use an improved methodology for h/w-s/w group interaction, but that's more a group organization thing, than a tools issue.
Since feature creep is so common, I think it's par for the course, especially in new product development. Manage it carefully, but we shouldn't say no just as a matter of course.
Feature creep: Yep. Seems like there are often good things to add, that should be added. Some things - no way. Maybe more careful thought up front would capture those things. But there is always an urge to just get started and add as you go.
@Alex – Feature creep...This is more the rule than the exception.Managers, sales people, marketing people, etc. love to change things after the fact.They think nothing of it.They usually wait until something in the design is done, which acts as the design's steering mechanism.To change this foundation causes a major re-design effort.But to the marketing/sales people, it means nothing but a memo.Isn't afterthought just wonderful?
"scatter/gather" DMA on a flash device will totally screw up their "use least-recently-used-space next" algorithms (to prevent bit-rot from 'relatively' limited write-counts-before-failure issues).
Many times they have tried to add features and it is not uncommon for interaction among features added themselves where additional problems arise in addition to problems related to indivdual features.
Feature creep? Regularly. Things have improved here, but controlling feature lists is always a big effort. It requires collaboaration to decide which features are both useful and implementable.
Have dealt with feature creep whole career. We are going to Agile which at least identifies the cost in time/money of each new feature. We will see how well it works.
No feature creep allowed. We have a point in a project beyond which all features are locked. Any new features after that point requires renegotiation of schedule and cost boundaries.
I have had spec creep issues. Wen people see one extra feature they. then say oh, we'll we should have this other feature as well. It just makes it all more difficult.
Using in-memory semaphores to communicate between different processors is SIMILAR to what you're describing re multiple processors/drivers accessing the same space. Opens up HUGE problems if you don't enforce a disciplined approach...
@Gary – Concerning shared purpose registers...Yes, I have encountered.I'd rather avoid it.However, speaking only for myself, it's no big deal.For me, it's routine to use AND and OR masking anyway for accessing specific bits in registers.
@JJPEngr - I have been attending these sessions for ALL 10 weeks and have not encountered one audio issue. Could be something else in your specific environment
Don't move bits: been bitten by this many times. Software changes are less expensive than ASIC spins, but they still are non-trivial. It's cheapest (for s/w) to make no changes to the software.
Anticipating problems isn,t the issue for me, it is convencing Management to let you spend a few bucks up front to prevent a potential disaster later. It has happened to me too many times.
My HW counterpart once designed 5 different configurations for the same block used in a family of products, so 5 different versions of code I wrote (kinda).
With the increasing availability (and therefore reduced cost) of DSP chips, and of GPUs, at some point seems like the "balance" kinda tips toward "Do as much as you can in software, but the hardware will 'deal' with whatever is left over"...
Golf?? No. Golf is for people who don't have a gut feel for statistics (or sales people).
nuclear utility regulator, involve in reviewing D&IC platform applications. Embedded systems and how they may impact safety system is an ongoing topic at this time.
@GStringham - I'm sure I'll know a few from Vancouver & Corvalis plants. having gotten the boot from Agilent in '03, I feel for the challenge and stress they are/will be under.
@LevitonDave - The newspaper said HP was going to do the layoffs over the next couple of years. They have not released anybody yet. But I'm sure I will know a few.
Good afternoon to all. Let's see -- predominantly hardware: project, proto, product; with more than enough software to make the hardware walk, talk, sing, see, hear, communicate, be testable with embedded diagnostics -- AND to (generally) be profitable. Currently seeking gainful employment AND contemplating/researching a wide range of possibly lucrative projects. Last time I checked, it's in the mid 80s outside, on its way to the mid 90s. Anyone here into "designer materials", like aerogels, graphene, etc? Anyone check out that LEAP product re input device with 0.01mm precision in 3D space? Any more recent signs of the Singularity? Pure synchronicity says the Mayan calendar just might have THAT pegged. Could be. Time for lunch, my blood sugar is obviously a bit low. See you guys shortly.
We looked at a number of sources to determine this year's greenest cars, from KBB to automotive trade magazines to environmental organizations. These 14 cars emerged as being great at either stretching fuel or reducing carbon footprint.
Researchers at MIT and Sandia National Labs have observed a reaction in lithium-air batteries that could help improve the design of these cells for electric vehicles and other applications.
Healthcare might seem to be an unlikely target application for the Internet of Things technology, but recent developments show small ways that big-data is going to make an impact on patient care moving into the future.
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A quick look into the merger of two powerhouse 3D printing OEMs and the new leader in rapid prototyping solutions, Stratasys. The industrial revolution is now led by 3D printing and engineers are given the opportunity to fully maximize their design capabilities, reduce their time-to-market and functionally test prototypes cheaper, faster and easier. Bruce Bradshaw, Director of Marketing in North America, will explore the large product offering and variety of materials that will help CAD designers articulate their product design with actual, physical prototypes. This broadcast will dive deep into technical information including application specific stories from real world customers and their experiences with 3D printing. 3D Printing is
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