Specialization advice needed.......

[decepticon]

yello,

I'll come straight to the point. I want to pursue a masters in electrical engineering in a field that is the intersection of

a) digital systems and logic design
b) control systems
c) dsp (in particular digital filter design)

Please suggest a field (or a closely related one) that equals (a Π b Π c) .

Thanks !

 

[shaiko]

If you aren't biased towards any other field, I recommand: "digital systems and logic design"
This will cover both FPGA and ASIC design.

 

[decepticon]

Thank you Shaiko.....

Yes, these are the main fields I'm interested in. Definitely FPGA/ASIC design has captured my interest....

But most MS programs include this in a domain called 'Computer Engineering' and this domain invariably includes some computer science courses like software engineering, internet engineering etc.....

I find this rather irksome and unnecessary (?) for a hardware engineer.

Further comments/advice will be much appreciated.....

 

[shaiko]

But most MS programs include this in a domain called 'Computer Engineering' and this domain invariably includes some computer science courses like software engineering, internet engineering etc.....

I find this rather irksome and unnecessary (?) for a hardware engineer.

I rarely see engineers that do low level chip design together with software design.
However, having good knowledge and skills in software design is a very good thing.
It's a little ironic, but the more complex a chip becomes the more software / firmware specialists you'll need to fully take advantages of it's capabilities.
The result - a greater need for RT/Embedded specialits than chip designers.

Also, from the system architect's point of view - knowing and understanding the software part of your system - is a big plus.
For example: Some of the MCU cores available on the market can run various OS - some are real time, some are not...Many times the system "architect" who makes the choise is a hardware engineer - and having zero software knowledge, might lead to less than ideal decisions...