Re: pick 'n' place machines (was: OT 0805 resistor noise)

On Fri, 9 Sep 2005 00:23:22 -0700, "Walter Harley"
<walterh@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

>"John Larkin" <jjlarkin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
>news:c171i11tu8ov8u7m2asa7p2j27tokne13f@xxxxxxxxxx
>> [...]
>> It's sure nice to toss all your logic into one huge chip. No
>> interconnect problems, and massively inefficient logic works just
>> fine. Multipliers, adders, fifos, PID controllers, serial bangers,
>> phase detectors, DPMs, whatever, just heap them on. It's almost
>> obscene.
>
>
>That's how most modern software works, too.
>

Except that huge, complex, synchronously-clocked hardware logic
systems seldom have bugs. But most software has bugs. The design
methodologies are distinct: in hardware logic, the current system
state is unambiguous, and combinational logic based on the current
state sets up the next state, which is implemented, across the entire
chip, at the next clock. People get into trouble whan they break that
paradigm. In software, the execution point is local, but wanders all
over the place in often unpredictable paths, and in a multitasking
system (ie, most systems nowadays) there is seldom any decent
mechanism for coordinating tasks.

So, most hardware works and most software sucks. The best programmers
are usually engineers who implement everything as true state machines.
The worst programmers are kids who went directly into CS and learned
C++ and MFC from the get-go.

John



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