Using the latest & greatest in embedded electronics design is risky! Every chip has a bug!
Engineers getting excited about using the latest and greatest is awesome... but it is extremely risky!
Every chip has a bug in the embedded world!
Very rarely does a design work exactly as intended first time. With time and cost in mind, pouring through 1000-page data sheets for the one sentence that tells you the exact bug you will encounter may not be the most optimal outcome.
Making prototypes FAST, then seeing what works and what doesn't, then going looking for the bugs is another approach. But it’s still effort and cost.
What's better yet is... don't change from the chipset you have if you don't absolutely have to!
In the embedded world, chips go end of life, so it’s inevitable to have to change chipsets out.
Vendors will claim they have 'direct drop-in replacements'. BAHA... how many times have we have heard this, but then follows months of work to get that ‘drop-in’ replacement to work!
It’s not just junior engineers that get caught up in this trap. I know of several very experienced engineers who get caught up in the marketing hype, or the $1 reduction in BOM cost for the new silicon.
Changing a chip out or starting a new project with the latest and greatest is a huge risk! It has to be handled with care, often with a PoC process... no matter how well the vendor reassures you the new chip is a ‘drop-in’ replacement.
This is one of the key challenges with Embedded product development. There are many others, but this one is key to not only the engineering pathway, but the larger product roadmap and success.
Share your thoughts on my 'every chip has a bug' hypothesis! Have you been bitten also???
And if you like, check out the full episode with Xarion Comoretto and I (follow the link under my name) for more about how we do embedded development at Element.
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#embedded #electronics #design #podcast #productdevelopment #pcb