Innovative Power Products (IPP) RF Combiners / Dividers

Tales from the Cube: Disappearing Data

There don't seem to be many electronic products these days without some form of software in them (EEPROMs, ASICs, μProcessors, FPGAs, etc.); indeed, many electrical engineers also wear a software engineer's hat. Two consultants that advertise on RF Cafe, Lance Lascari (RF Dude) and Joe Cahak (Sunshine Design) come to mind, along with many others known during my career. I've even done a bit of software and FPGA programming myself. This installment of EDN's "Tales from the Cube" series titled "Disappearing Data," involves an engineer who needed to live in both worlds in order to solve his problem with a meter designed by someone long gone from the company. Mihaela Costin applied a bit of ingenuity to make the best of a bad situation. The moral of his story is to always make sure employees, consultants or otherwise, leave sufficient information about their designs and thought processes to allow someone else to pick up on the effort long after they're gone - a small price to pay in extra hours compared to what it costs to do it later.

Posted August 27, 2013

RF Cafe began life in 1996 as "RF Tools" in an AOL screen name web space totaling 2 MB. Its primary purpose was to provide me with ready access to commonly needed formulas and reference material while performing my work as an RF system and circuit design engineer. The World Wide Web (Internet) was largely an unknown entity at the time and bandwidth was a scarce commodity. Dial-up modems blazed along at 14.4 kbps while tying up your telephone line, and a lady's voice announced "You've Got Mail" when a new message arrived...

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