Re: Hourly Consulting Rates for Embedded Work?

From: Guy Macon (http://www.guymacon.com)
Date: 05/10/04 

Date: Sun, 09 May 2004 19:49:15 -0700

Bruce <bruce@nospam.com> says...
>
>In comp.arch.embedded Guy Macon <http://www.guymacon.com> wrote:
>
>>Bugs: zero. (If you can't write a zero-bug toy control program,
>>you have no business being in an industry where the minimum order
>>is 50,000 masked-ROM parts.)
>
>I'm tempted

Resist that temptation!

>to say you're full of it Guy. Either that or the task is less
>than trivial.

Good thing you put in the qualifier. These programs are indeed
"less than trivial" by the standards of anyone else. One recent
example was a dinosaur toy that had a switch, a speaker, and
a LED. Push the switch and it plays a sound and flashes the eyes.
Push the switch again and it plays another sound and flashes the
eyes. Repeat forever. The switch resets the processor, which
then flashes the eyes, checks a bit in RAM to see which sound to
play, plays the sound, toggles the bit, and goes into the lowest
power stop-the-clock sleep mode.

To do it right (and you *must* do it right when the minimum order
is 50,000 masked-ROM parts!) you do this:

Test for 100% code coverage using a simulator

Do a design review with other developers

Put the program into several chip-on-board prototypes that
are tested by the QA dept, marketing (they are checking
whether they like the sounds, but report any bugs they
notice) and the VP in charge of the division.

When the first chips come off the line in Asia, have them put
them into pre-production prototypes and tested there.

Ship those the pre-production prototypes back to the developer
and the QA dept for another test.

Continue testing random samples from the entire production run.

It is possible to write a "reset -> branch -> do something ->
sleep" program with no bugs. In fact, most programs that
consist of less that 32 assembly language instructions on a
very limited 4-bit uP can be made with no bugs.

BTW, if you are in the market for 87 metric tons of Jar Jar
Binks dolls, I can get you a *great* deal... 

-- 
Guy Macon, Electronics Engineer & Project Manager for hire. 
Remember Doc Brown from the _Back to the Future_ movies? Do you 
have an "impossible" engineering project that only someone like 
Doc Brown can solve?  My resume is at http://www.guymacon.com/

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Hourly Consulting Rates for Embedded Work?
    ... Push the switch and it plays a sound and flashes the eyes. ...
    (comp.arch.embedded)
  • Window media has no sound when using my USB CD player.
    ... When using my USB CD player, I have no sound but there is movement as if ... playing. ... Can switch to my internal drive and it plays. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsmedia.player)
  • Re: Ok.. heres a guy who was thinking what I was thinking *epi vj*
    ... The 'Bias' Switch allows you to Voice the Amp to your Particular ... you should be able to 'NAIL' the Sound You Want. ... Position '1' is Half Power Boost. ...
    (alt.guitar)
  • sticky sound on 7 stable
    ... I have sticky sound flow on 2 different slowish laptops running 7 ... Stable, Sound plays for a few secs, then breaks for a fraction & ... Plays slow on the faster CPU! ...
    (freebsd-stable)
  • Re: Passive bass question
    ... If you've never encountered a phase switch (also called an "invert switch" ... The result is either noise and hum, or no sound at all. ... you insist that the FOH bass come only from the direct box, ... What *is* a hassle is the several times I've had to take the battery out ...
    (alt.guitar.bass)