PCB Design Conference 2004 (Jax Remix)

I can't believe it has already been a week
since I was flying back from California,
closing out another memorable year
at the PCB Design Conference.

For those of you who missed it,
here are a few notes
so you don't feel left out.

For those of you couldn't make it
because you are out of work right now,
my prayers go out to you and your families.
Hope you find something soon.

Over the last year I have read a lot of negative press
about the trends in our industry,
and sometimes I feel like I am barely keeping up
with the technological advances that influence my little world
of circuit board design,
and I have to admit
that lately I have been concerned
about my future as a relatively high-paid american designer
compared to the relatively inexpensive
foreign outsourcing designers.
So yeah,
I really needed to get out of this cubicle
for a couple of days,
take a few deep breaths,
and look around.

And you know what?
There is hope after all!
The people I met seemed positive
and enthusiastic,
and my fellow designers
are involved in a lot of interesting projects out there!

I really need that recharge sometimes.

We were at the Fairmont in San Jose again this year,
here's a "room service" equation that just blew my mind:

2 eggs + bacon + toast + coffee = $27.29

Sheesh!
Don't these people know the value of a dollar?

This is where I thank my company for sending me on expense account:

T H A N K S !

OK, on with the show....

I didn't work the Top Gun competition this year,
so I got to spend all of Monday visiting friends and associates.
You know, after you've been in this business for awhile,
the conferences start to feel like family reunions.
I only get to see most of you once a year.

Ok, on with the show....

Tuesday morning I heard the keynote address
by the CEO of Mentor
( http://www.mentor.com/corp_info/bios/rhines.html ),
which was called

"Breaking the PCB Design Process".

What?

BREAKING the process?

Yeah, this was a really thought-provoking speech.
I can't relate the whole thing, but the kernel of it was:
People don't really seek out a new way of doing things
until the old way breaks.

He sees about five areas that are going to break the process
if they continue on their present course.
1) FABRICATION - vendors are being pushed to the brink
   with MicroVias, embedded passives, HDI, flex, etc.
2) FPL - when it comes to feild-programmable logic,
   revenue per design is not increasing as fast as cost per design,
   now requires a volume of about 300,000 units to break even
   and this number is rising.
3) SIGNAL INTEGRITY - speeds increasing with 3rd Generation I/O,
   14% of designs are over 1GHz and this percentage is rising fast
4) LIBRARIES - multi-site problems with mergers and acquisitions,
   90% of product cost is determined by engineers,
   30% of an engineer's time is devoted to component selection.
   The trend is that powerful processors need MORE passives,
   not less. Where will it end?
5) GLOBALIZATION - collaborations and outsourcing are demanding
   more from concurrent design, partitioning,
   dividing the design into parallel sections
   and then somehow stitching the design back together
   in a seamless, automated, error-free way.

In fact, he wants the ultimate "divide and conquer" capability
where multiple designers are working on the same database
at the same time with system-wide constraint management.
Can you imagine four or five designers in all parts of the world
all logged into the same database
while you sit back and enjoy a cup of coffee
watching things move around on your screen like magic?
Sounds like I will need some training, eh?

Anyway, I probably did a bad job of summarizing,
but the thought he left me with is this:
The next 3-5 years will test companies,
particularly the ones who adapt to change slowly,
and some processes WILL break.

Are you preparing yourself for the stress?

-=-=-

Next I ventured into the exhibition hall,
where I made a bee-line for the IPC booth
to spend my annual $50 Designer Council coupon
on whatever the latest standard is.

Guess what?
I couldn't find 'em!
They totally bailed on us this year....
It was the weirdest thing.

Can you imagine the IPC not showing up
to sell their stuff at the Design Conference?

I thought their main mission was to
be there for me
and guide me,
the angel on my shoulder,
the big brother of the lowly designer in the trenches.
What's the world coming to ? ? ?
My faith is shattered.

(but I got cool stuffed animals for my daughters
at the Mentor booth, so all was not lost)

-=-=-

Next, I attended Happy Holden's class
what a trip!
Happy can talk for an hour
before making it past the Table of Contents.
I really REALLY enjoy when he gets off the subject
and just starts telling stories.

For example,
I thought all this outsourcing stuff was new,
but did you know
Hewlett Packard was outsourcing to Nan Ya over 20 years ago?
Yeah, HP was selling a ****load of stuff over there,
and then got threatened with stiff penalties for not
reciprocating as far as trade goes,
so HP started major bare-board fab over there to appease.

I'm glad I got to meet ya, Happy!

Oh yeah, here's something you just GOTTA hear:
Did you know that a Dunkin' Donut costs more per area
than high-volume 4-layer boards?
So next time you're complaining about the high cost of boards,
just realize you probably paid more for your donut!

-=-=-

I really liked the way the schedule was combined to have
The beer-fest in the Exhibition Hall
on the same night as
The "Porch Dawgs" musical extravanganza.
So,
catch a buzz on the floor,
stumble over to the concert!
YEAH!
I guess the term "Beer and Dawgs" has a new meaning for me now.

I remember dancing,
but things got kinda fuzzy after that.
Thanks for finding my shoes, Wes!

-=-=-

Next thing I knew, I was at the Mentor Awards dinner!
It was held at the Tech Museum across the street,
which had some really interesting exhibits.
like designing your own roller coaster on a computer
and then taking a virtual ride on it,
or seeing your "heat signature" on an infrared movie screen,
or watching a JPL simulation of the Mars probe thing.
Of course
Doug Brooks just HAD to crash the alphabet-blocks robot!

I got to sit next to Steve Tipping
who designed a fabulous WiFi board,
and I was astonished to find out the whole thing
is only a inch square.
Truly a work of art.
(I tried to find a picture of it on the internet but no luck.)
http://www10.edacafe.com/nbc/articles/view_article.php?section=CorpNews&articleid=115884

On the other side of the table I got to meet Wayne Pulliam of AMD,
who we should all thank for improving pinouts on processors
so we can actually route them.
He doesn't know it, but he taught me more about BGA routing
than I ever thought I needed to learn. Thanks, dude!

With Doug and his beautiful wife,
and Rick Hartley,
and Wayne Pulliam
and Steve Tipping
and Andy Shaughnessy
all at the same table,
I felt like a kid.
(Yeah, I'm a name dropper)
Hope to see you all again sometime!

-=-=-

Well, I've rambled on enough for one night.

Thursday was a winding-down day
with a few classes,
a few goodbyes,
and a wonderful meal at the Fish Market.

Friday it was back to Chicago.

seeya in 2005?

Jack
http://www.jaxpage.net

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