Uploaded byIan Phillips
Being a Design Engineer
The document is a retrospective on the evolution and challenges faced by design engineers over the past four decades, emphasizing the importance of functional, economical, and innovative engineering. It discusses advances in computing technology, the significance of industry adaptation, reuse of design, and collaboration, while highlighting the role of ARM in semiconductor development. The future emphasizes smarter, more connected products, driven by technology's integration into everyday life.
Being a Design Engineer
- 1. 1 of 40 Being a Design Engineer ... A Retrospec0ve Perspec0ve Electrical, Electronic & Computer Science Seminar 11feb16: Uo.Liverpool, Uk. Pdf and Video at hCp://ianp24.blogspot.com Opinions expressed are my own ... Prof. Ian Phillips PrincipalStaff Engineer ARM Ltd ian.phillips@arm.com Visiting Prof. at ... Contribution to Industry Award 2008 1v1
- 2. 2 of 40 1974: At the Design StarNng Line ... § 1st in Electrical and Electronic Eng. § Mathema0cs, Communica0ons, Physics, Op0cs, Electrical, Discrete Electronics, Radio, Digital Logic and Computers, Fortran ... § Electronics at the Nme ... § Most Electronics was Professional § Solid State Electronics was just about there (Valves were sNll around) § The Consumer had TV, radio and the four-funcNon pocket calculator § All real-Nme Signals and their Processing was analogue § Larger Companies had One Computer, shared it using Teletype terminals § 74xx TTL in use in Mainframe Computers (TRS80 first personal computer in 1977). § Paper tape was the designers i/o. Mag tape for any file more than a few Kb. § Ethernet new for business (Local), Janet for educaNon (Regional) (Internet ~1990) § The Car and Telephone was s0ll electro-mechanical § Cameras were mechanical and chemical; Diaries, Organizers, Magazines were physical. § Lights were incandescent; Displays were CRT (No LCDs or LEDs). ... Was I prepared for the next 40yrs as a Design Engineer?
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- 6. 6 of 40 Engineering is Making Stuff Happen... § Stuff which is Valuable and Viable ... § Func<onal - It has GOT to work § Economical - Its cost has got to be less than its value § Reproducible - Yield, Distributable, Reliable (enough) § Innova<ve - Compe00ve against alterna0ve implementa0ons § Its about Delivering a Promise for the future ... § Certainty § Timescales § Development and Manufacturing Costs § Quality (Dependability and Reliability) § Using Appropriate Available Technology ... § The right technologies, not the fanciest; available technologies, not the op0mis0cally promised § It is about working with others (Teamwork) internally and externally to deliver § It is about thinking around and about the problem, and being ingenious in the solu0on ... It is Not about blind pursuit of the new, or s0mula0on of your pleasure-glands.
- 7. 7 of 40 CompuNng: 100BC - Hipparchos’s AnNkythera Early-Mechanical Computation Hipparchos c.190 BC –c.120 BC. Ancient Greek Astronomer, Philosopher and Mathematician§ A Mechanism for Compu<ng Planetary Posi<ons § Technology: Hand-Made Metal, Hand-Cut Gears, Engraving, Analogue § Found in the Mediterranean in 1900 (Believe there might have been 10’s) See: hCp://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02hz21v
- 8. 8 of 40 CompuNng: 1700 - Graham’s Orrery § A Mechanism for Compu<ng Planetary Posi<ons (1,800 yrs aPer An<kythera!) § Technology: Factory-Made Metal, Machine-Cut Gears, Wood, Analogue § Inventor: George Graham (1674-1751). English Clock-Maker. Mechanical Technology George Graham
- 9. 9 of 40 § A Mechanism for Compu<ng Polynomial Tables § Technology: Metal, Precision Gears, Digital (base 10) § Too expensive for the technology of the day CompuNng: 1837 - Babbage's Difference Engine Constructed 2000 Late-Mechanical Computation
- 10. 10 of 40 CompuNng: 1856 - Amsler’s Planimeter Mechanical Computation Planimeter 2014 ! § A Mechanism for Compu<ng the Area of an arbitrary 2D shape § Technology: Precision Mechanics, Analogue § Available today ... Electronically enhanced
- 11. 11 of 40 § General Purpose, Stored Program, Compu<ng Mechanism § Technology: Electronics (valves), Digital (base 2) § Available today ... Enhanced by Micro-Electronics (Mainframe <=> Laptop) CompuNng: 1947 - Uo.Manchester’s “Baby” Electronic Computation ImplementaNons are Limited by available Technology! Reconstruction 2000
- 12. 12 of 40 § HPCs and Mainframes … Certainly stretching theenvelope § WorkstaBons (High Performance Desk-Top) … Maybe The face of CompuNng Today? Is this the fronNer for electronic technology today?
- 13. 13 of 40 Moore’s Law: c1965 § “Moore's Law” was coined by Carver Mead in 1970, from Gordon Moore's arBcle in Electronics Magazine 19 April 1965 "Cramming more components onto integrated circuits“. “The complexity forminimum component costs has increased at a rate of roughly a factor of two per year ... Certainly over the short term this rate can be expected to continue, if not to increase. Over the longer term, the rate of increase is a bit more uncertain, although there is no reason to believe it will not remain nearly constant for at least 10 years. That means by 1975, the number of components per integrated circuit for minimum cost will be 65,000. I believe that such a large circuit can be built on a single wafer” In 1965 he was designing ICs with ~80 transistors! And basing his observations on 30-40 transistor ICs!
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- 16. 16 of 40 2012: Nvidea’s Tegra3 Processor Unit (Around 1B transistors) NB:TheTegra 3 is similar to the Apple A4
- 17. 17 of 40 § Good Businesses Sell what Customers (You) want to Buy (Duh!) § Successful businesses do it profitably! § In a Global Market they focus on their Core Competencies § And op0mise their Business-Models (which actually collect the Money) § Their Designers (of all types) create Product DifferenNaNon … § Making their Products More Desirable than their Compe0tors § By Reducing Costs and/or Improving Func0onality / Quality § Product Development is a Cost (Risk) to be Minimised § Technology just enables Op0ons! (HW, SW, Mechanics, Op0cs, Graphene, etc) § New-Technology may cost more (including risk) than it delivers in Product Value! § Over-Design costs ... Cannot afford the Precau0onary Principle! § Reuse saves … Cannot afford to re-invent the wheel, or pursue perfec0on! ... Todays Businesses have to be Globally Compe<<ve, Money Making Machines ... And Business is about moneNzing The Stuff Business funds the whole Ecosystem (Research, Science and Technology)
- 18. 18 of 40 ... Old Markets remain; but they inherit Technologies from the Lead Markets! So it’s Business OpportuniNes that Drive Technology New 21c Products will be ‘Smarter’ and more ‘Connected’ ... 1970 1980 19902000 2010 2020 2030 Main Frame Mini Computer Personal Computer Desktop Internet Mobile Internet Millionsof Units ProfessionalçèConsumer 1st Era Select work-tasks 2nd Era Broad-based computing for specific tasks 3rd Era Computing as part of our lives
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- 23. 23 of 40 ARM7 Core DMA Par. Port PCMCIA UART(2) Int’t. Contr. Memory Interface Timers W’Dog Arb’tr. Misc. 1991:ARM RISC-Processor Core …
- 24. 24 of 40 10nm 100nm 1um 10um 100um ApproximateProcessGeometry ITRS’99 Transistors/Chip(M) Transistor/PM(K) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moore’s_law 1,800py 8,500py 100py Moore’s Law: 50 yrs of Increasing Design Challenge ... Global TeamsLocal TeamsSmallTeamSingle Designer Expertise ReuseHW&SW ReuseSome ReuseClean Sheet “Verification Gap”
- 25. 25 of 40 1990's: Designer ProducNvity drove the Methodology § The Product PossibiliNes offered by uNlising the Billions of Affordable and AestheNcally Encapsulate-able Transistors is Commercially Beguiling! § But the only way to realise these possibiliNes in a reasonable Nme, with a reasonable team and at a reasonable cost; is huge amounts of Reuse of Design and Technology ... § Hardware, SoPware and other Technologies; Methods and Tools § In-Company: Sourced and Evolved from Predecessor Products § Ex-Company: Sourced from businesses with lesser-known(?) Histories, but Specialist Knowledge § Reuse Improves Quality; as objects are designed more carefully, and bug-fixes are incremental § But beware; systems always have residual errors! ... Clean-Sheet approaches are several orders of magnitude higher cost! … >99% Reuse will be the rule for all future Product Design and Development!
- 26. 26 of 40 Today: Bringing the Right Horse to the Right Course ... ... Delivering ~5x speed (Architecture + Process + Clock) About 50MTr About 50KTr
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- 28. 28 of 40 ... CoreLink for Hetrogeneous MulN-Processing ... ACE ACE NIC-400 Network Interconnect FlashGPIO NIC-400 USBQuad Cortex- A15 L2 cache Interrupt Control CoreLink™ DMC-520 x72 DDR4-3200 PHY AHB Snoop Filter Quad Cortex- A15 L2 cache Quad Cortex- A15 L2 cache Quad Cortex- A15 L2 cache CoreLink™ DMC-520 x72 DDR4-3200 8-16MB L3 cache PCIe 10-40 GbE DPI Crypto CoreLink™ CCN-504 Cache Coherent Network IO Virtualisation with System MMU DSP DSP DSP SATA Dual channel DDR3/4 x72 Up to 4 cores per cluster Up to 4 coherent clusters Integrated L3 cache Up to 18 AMBA interfaces for I/O coherent accelerators and IO Peripheral address space Heterogeneous processors – CPU, GPU, DSP and accelerators Virtualized Interrupts Uniform System memory
- 29. 29 of 40 … Tools, Libraries and Partners to Realize the Opportunity § Technology to build Electronic System soluBons: § SoPware, Drivers, OS-Ports, Tools, U<li<es to create efficient system with op0mized sorware solu0ons § Diverse Physical Components, including CPU and GPU processors designed for specific tasks § Interconnect System IP delivering coherency and the quality of service required for lowest memory bandwidth § Op<mised Cell-Libraries for a highly op0mized SoC implementa0ons § Well Connected to Partners in the Life-Cycle: § For complementary tools and methods required by System Developers § Global Technology Global Partners: § ~1000 Partners; Millions of Developers
- 30. 30 of 40 § UK Established and Headquartered § Global leader in the development of semiconductor IP § R&D outsourcing for semiconductor companies § InnovaNve business model yields high margins § Upfront license fee – flexible licensing models § Ongoing royal<es – typically based on a percentage of chip price § Technology reused across mul0ple applica0ons ... ARM Technology Creates new and Transforms exis0ng markets ... And our Business Model 2-3 20+ years MulNple applicaNons development and sales 2-3 years Partner chip development 2-3 years ARM research and development Cost incurred License revenue $ Royalty revenue $ ~1,200 total licenses … 163 in 2014 >350 potenNal royalty payers 12bn ARM-based chips 2014 20% CAGR over last 5 years ~£820m Revenue (~28% on R&D) ~3300 Employees ww (~1400 in the UK) … fromY2014 published figures
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- 32. 32 of 40 Software development tools Physical IP –Design of the building blocks of the chip Processor and Graphics IP – Design of the brain of the chip Power Mgmt Bluetooth Cellular Modem WiFi SIM GPS Flash Controller Touchscreen & Sensor Hub Sensor Hub Camera Apps Processor ARM Technology enables others to be more InnovaNve § From processors and mulNmedia IP, to soxware and tools Early software development on Virtual Platforms
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- 34. 34 of 40 § Need: A Mechanism for enhancing human memory (Camera) § Technology: ... § Excellent Lenses § Fine Mechanical Mechanisms § Electro-Mechanical Exposure Metering § Metal (and some) Plas0c Forming § Manual Assembly § Photo-Chemical Memory (35mm Film) 1998 - Canon EOS Rebel GII (17yrs ago) 35mm Film Camera System-Level Mechanical Computation
- 35. 35 of 40 § Need: A Mechanism for enhancing human memory (Camera) § Technology: ... § Digital Logic (CPU+I.O.) § Sorware § Memory (NV and RAM) § Excellent Lenses and Displays § Analogue Electronics (Network & GPS) § Sensors and Transducers (CCD & MEM) § Precision Mechanics § Micro-Motors § Baweries and Energy Storage § LEDs and Discharge Tubes § Precision forming of Plas0cs and Metal § Electronic Packaging § Robo0c Assembly ... Technology External to the Product! ... All these Technologies are available to 'All' 21c Businesses today ... But have to be established as Capabili<es in a Business before they can be used! 2015 - Canon EOS 5D (Today) Incorporating DIGIC5+ (ARM) System-Level Computation ARM-based Computer
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- 37. 37 of 40 Apple's Global Products ... ... Global Teams contribuNng their Specialist Knowledge & Knowhow § 159 Tier-1 Component Suppliers ... § Thousands of Engineers Globally § ~10x Tier-2 Virtual-Component Suppliers ... § Technologies ... § Hardware, Sorware, Op0cs, Mechanics, Acous0cs, RF, Plas0cs, etc § Manufacturing, Test, Qualifica0on, etc. § Methods, Tools, Training, etc § Virtual Components1 and Knowhow (ARM is in here) § Tens of thousands Engineers Globally ... More than 90% of the Technology and Methods are Reused! 1: Virtual Components do not appear on BOM
- 38. 38 of 40 § 40 years of conNnuous Changes in Technology and their ApplicaNon ... § Digital Electronics (MOS, CMOS, BiCMOS, Bipolar, GaAs, I2C, ECL, etc) § Integrated Circuits Design and Manufacture (HDLs, Verifica0on Languages, etc.) § Systems Design § Compute Engines and their Architectures (CPU, GPU, FPGA, VLIW, SIMD) § Sorware (Basic, Fortran, C, C++, HTML, Perl, Pascal, Java, ...) § Display Technologies, Acous0cs, Transistor RF, SAW § Mathema0cal Methods and DSP § Assembly/Manufacturing technology § Methods & Tools § Reuse (Polygons to Stacks and OS's) § WorkSta0on (PC, Mac, Linux, Unix, MSOffice, Eudora, Outlook, Perl, html, Python, etc) ... Con<nuous Learning and Re-Learning through my working life ... Mostly hands-on; mostly leading-edge where 'there are no books' ... Odd-Courses; for Introduc0ons, Established and Cross-Discipline stuff 2016: At the (my) Finishing-Line ...
- 39. 39 of 40 § TerNary EducaNon (Bs, Ms, PhD) gets you to the start-line of an Engineer/ScienNst career § It Enables you to Understand the Language and the Context § It Prepares you to take the next (and subsequent steps) yourself § Knowledge, Ability, Adaptability and Quality are the key requirement of these E/S graduates ... Cer0ficates mawer; but not as much as ability! § A Design Engineers Career is a through-life experience ... § The Capabili0es that a business has, limits the Products it can produce ... ... The assembled skills of its Designers are that Capability § A good Designer connects his/her Knowledge and Experience with that of others ... to Deliver Innova<on § Because the pace of change is fast, a Designers current value is dominated by their last 3-5yrs of ‘work' ... Your Career as a Design Engineer is mostly in your hands § EducaNon System doesn't produce Engineers / ScienNsts, only people ready to become them! ... ARM Starts with Good Graduates and expects to Develop them through life ... Be sure to work for a Company that Recognises this need! Being a Design Engineer ... The Journey of a LifeNme Business Values Ability over the way in which it was achieved ...
- 40. 40 of 40 Conclusions § Electronic Systems are the Most Technically Complex Machines ever made by man; but the Commercial opportuniNes that drive them do not value (or recognise) that … § Every year they will con0nue to be More Complex ... Ad-Infinitum § And every year the Customers Apprecia0on of your role in them will diminish ... Do Something about it § Business Drives Everything ... § Globalisa0on means Global Compe00on; for Business (but also for the Individual!) § Product differen0a0on is vital for business § Can be cost, quality, availability and/or performance § It can come the Known-Set (InnovaNon) or by judicious use of Technology § But Technology, offers no inherent value in a product ... THOUGH the 'performance' it offers might! § No prize for making it work ... That is expected! (That is just you doing what you are paid for!) § Design in an era of rapid Change § 21c will be no different to earlier eras; the Designers Challenge is to keep up-to-date with Technology § Moore's Law for planar electronics has dominated the last 50yrs; Other Laws will replace it (soon) § Expect to spend your life0me learning and re-learning (Your last 3-5yrs is the most useful) ... You have chosen a wonderful career at a very exci<ng <me of change. ENJOY!