This so called commoditization of a particular skill set or expertise has
always been going on in the industry. I remember when SSI and TTL devices
first started into wide spread use back the late 60's early 70's. If you were
someone who understood Boolean logic, Karnaugh maps, and finite state machine
theory (along being able to read data sheets correctly), you were in high
demand as an expert. When programmable logic started showing up in the late
70's, if you knew PALASM and how to turn logic equation into fuse-link files,
you were an expert. When FPGAs appeared on the scene in the 80's, if you could
run a Xilinx PIP editor, you were an expert. Later on, it was knowledge of
VHDL or Verilog that made you an in-demand expert. In all of these cases, what
were once considered to be esoteric skill sets and the realm of experts and
gurus has become routine work - commoditized if you will.
The time of being an expert seems to be 5 to 10 years for a given skill set.
The way you remain an in-demand expert is to constantly evolve and stay on the
cutting edge.
I remember when I first started working in the industry back in the late 60's.
There was a technology being used in the RF world that went by the name of
mag-amps (magnetic amplifiers, I think). We had one or two mag-amp experts in
the company who knew intimately the ins and outs of these devices. But as
semiconductor performance improved and GaAs FETs that worked at RF frequencies
became available, their expertise was no longer needed. In the course of
several short years, they became experts whose knowledge was no longer needed.
Steve Shimko
-----Original Message-----
From: si-list-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:si-list-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On
Behalf Of Jim Nadolny
Sent: Wednesday, August 05, 2015 9:52 AM
To: buenoshun@xxxxxxxxx; si-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: EXT :[SI-LIST] Re: commodity
Hey Istvan -
I would not call SI engineering a commodity but I would say that it is
maturing. At one point SI seemed to be the lone analog engineer in a sea of
digital dudes. Stuff would not work due to analog effects so it was up to the
analog guy to sort out transmission line effects, maybe even model the analog
aspects of the digital circuitry. By default, this analog guy had to be pretty
good to investigate, troubleshoot, measure, model...and eventually they were an
expert.
Universities rose to the challenge...a few anyway. The software tools matured
and became much more easy to use. The instrumentation matured. I could have
really used a 4 port VNA with AFR 20 years ago, but none existed. A few
companies have SI training programs and there are very good consultants that
can teach you what you need to know.
So now you have guys with 3-5 years of experience that are very capable. They
might struggle with stuff they have never seen before, but that is true of
anyone. The difference is that the expert might have 3 ways of solving a
problem and know 5 guys that have solved this exact problem. They know what
they don't know and know who and how to get the problem solved. The guy with 3
years' experience might know of one way to solve the problem and not realize
that he is missing some major pieces of the puzzle.
I think of it as evolution not commoditization.
-----Original Message-----
From: si-list-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:si-list-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On
Behalf Of Istvan Nagy
Sent: Wednesday, August 05, 2015 2:26 AM
To: si-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [SI-LIST] commodity
Hi,
Did signal integrity engineering become a commodity?
Or is this trend about to slap someone in the face?
I thought it used to be a professor or scientist job for the best and
brightest, but nowadays all companies keep hiring people for their SI teams in
large quantities. Most job postings are like "fresh graduate with 3yr
experience", that's all that's required. The "expert" is not part of the
equation anymore?
Did it become that simple that any fresh graduate can do what 10 years ago only
the smartest people could do?
I got quotes from some service/contractor companies doing SI simulations for us
on their Ansoft tools (for a lot of money), but "what to simulate" or "how to
interpret the results" was either not covered or was seriously misguided.
The same might have happened to "engineering" some years earlier. Is it the
same, or this time it is different?
Some threads here on si-list in recent years seem (to me) to reflect that too.
Regards,
Istvan Nagy
(I am not really an SI-engineer, but a HW/product/board designer)
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