May 2011 – Page 3

An Engineer’s Engineer

May 4, 2011

On the lighter side of things, ESC opened yesterday with a “fireside chat” with Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, introduced as an engineer’s engineer (and if you don’t know who he is, “you’ve got issues.”)

What got spontaneous applause from the audience were simple populist pronouncements on:

Education. He’s clearly not a fan of our factory classrooms where “different” thinkers are herded back onto the duly designated path of “right” thinking, which is why he recommends OpCentral online learning.
Patent … Read More → "An Engineer’s Engineer"

Monopoly as the Efficient Model

by Jim Turley

May 2, 2011

Mentor CEO Wally Rhines gave a keynote presentation at the recent U2U event and, once you connected all the dots in the presentation, he seemed to make a startling suggestion: that industries with monopolies are more efficient than those with many competitors.

Of course, that’s not exactly how he said it. Rather than talking in terms of monopoly versus competition, he worded it as specialization versus generalization, and the point is that specialization is more efficient.

He used Alcoa as an example. At one time, there was no one but Alcoa for … Read More → "Monopoly as the Efficient Model"

Get Wreal

by Jim Turley

May 2, 2011

When analog design discussions turn to simulation, especially when they involve Cadence, one inevitably comes up against the unfortunately-named concept of the “wreal” type. I say “unfortunately” because, pronounced with standard English rules, it’s pronounced “real,” providing no audible distinction from the “real” type. So it’s typically pronounced “double-you-real.” (Or occasionally you’ll hear “w^uh-real.& … Read More → "Get Wreal"