TheXeno
Newbie level 5
Hi,
I was imagining an hypothetical discussion between 4 electronic engineers, in which one is specialized in firmware because he/she love to see things in control. Another plays with FPGAs and DSPs, because DSP is the future. Then one is doing pure digital ASIC design since the most important thing is to define the architectures and hardwired DSPs are the best, with associated heavy verification. The last has a specialization in analog and is doing pure IC analog design, because... well, no one discuss against analog. All of them had studied Electronics Engineering; more digital, few analog.
Now imagine a joke, like what a French, an English, a German and an Italian engineer could discuss on. The firmware engineer is happy to see things moving because is giving "the soul" to the silicon dead "brick". The digital ASIC insists that without him/her there would be no brick to "get" the firmware, hence the important circuit is the hardware. The FPGA guy just don't care, safe to feel like an ASIC designer but with the instant gratification of a firmware guy, feeling also a proper electronic guy because always using the lab and isntruments; plus, thinks that only him/her has to do with real signal processing.
The discussion is getting heated. The analog IC designer is almost going to join the confrontation, but suddenly decide to leave the room: "They'are just not electronic engineers".
There is a fifth guy, an application engineer, who listen this and runs to EDA to ask to the peers there what they think about what the analog guy said.
So, hoping to gave you the point, in my opinion an RF/Analog engineer, but also a PCB/System designer can be freely defined as Electronic Engineer. They are dealing with electrical quantities as a core skill, whether on paper/simulations or on real things.
But, an average person doing digital, never having to deal or play with electrical components, despite the official name of its field of study, is it still an electronic engineer? While in reality can be defined an algorithm/processing or even firmware engineer? Also, I assume all of them to be equally talented and super useful engineers, doing an equally demanding job, each on a different aspect.
I post in this forum exactly because there could be more digital guys and interchangeably some firmwares - but in general, dealing with digital techniques mostly.
Thanks for your time!
I was imagining an hypothetical discussion between 4 electronic engineers, in which one is specialized in firmware because he/she love to see things in control. Another plays with FPGAs and DSPs, because DSP is the future. Then one is doing pure digital ASIC design since the most important thing is to define the architectures and hardwired DSPs are the best, with associated heavy verification. The last has a specialization in analog and is doing pure IC analog design, because... well, no one discuss against analog. All of them had studied Electronics Engineering; more digital, few analog.
Now imagine a joke, like what a French, an English, a German and an Italian engineer could discuss on. The firmware engineer is happy to see things moving because is giving "the soul" to the silicon dead "brick". The digital ASIC insists that without him/her there would be no brick to "get" the firmware, hence the important circuit is the hardware. The FPGA guy just don't care, safe to feel like an ASIC designer but with the instant gratification of a firmware guy, feeling also a proper electronic guy because always using the lab and isntruments; plus, thinks that only him/her has to do with real signal processing.
The discussion is getting heated. The analog IC designer is almost going to join the confrontation, but suddenly decide to leave the room: "They'are just not electronic engineers".
There is a fifth guy, an application engineer, who listen this and runs to EDA to ask to the peers there what they think about what the analog guy said.
So, hoping to gave you the point, in my opinion an RF/Analog engineer, but also a PCB/System designer can be freely defined as Electronic Engineer. They are dealing with electrical quantities as a core skill, whether on paper/simulations or on real things.
But, an average person doing digital, never having to deal or play with electrical components, despite the official name of its field of study, is it still an electronic engineer? While in reality can be defined an algorithm/processing or even firmware engineer? Also, I assume all of them to be equally talented and super useful engineers, doing an equally demanding job, each on a different aspect.
I post in this forum exactly because there could be more digital guys and interchangeably some firmwares - but in general, dealing with digital techniques mostly.
Thanks for your time!