On Apr 12, 2005 2:46 AM, Daniel Phillips <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On Tuesday 12 April 2005 02:31, Rene Herman wrote: > > The concept you are still failing to grasp is the difference between > > software and hardware tinkerers. I fully expect that to be because > > you are both but many people are not. I am not, meaning that at the > > very least I can assure you there _is_ a difference. > > No, I am not. I have never touched hardware in my life except for > playing a bit with a PDP8 back in university days. I am a kernel > hacker, and trust me, many people just like myself are going to take to > Verlilog and routing problems like fish to water. It's a very natural > evolution. > > Rene, could we drop this please?
You're clearly a smart guy, Daniel, and I am confident that you have the potential to be a great chip designer. However, if you think that you're going "take to Verilog" and instantly become a competent chip designer, you've got another thing coming. I've had people argue differently, but I don't know if they were chip designers. What I know from my experience is that everything I learned about how to write good software had to be unlearned. Rules of thumb for good software are exactly backwards for hardware. Your software background won't help you much, because chip design is a whole new way of thinking. Clever coding tricks consistently backfire on you in Verilog. Software is inherently sequential. Going from scalar software to parallel processing is very hard, but it's still inherently sequential within threads. Hardware is inherently parallel, with absolutely everything happening all at the same time. Someone who has challenges with parallel processing is going to find chip design to be a nightmare. I learned Verilog syntax in about a week. I know it better than our senior ASIC designer. There are aspects of it, like "natural size", that he never learned. When he has syntax problems, he calls me over to look at why his code isn't doing what he thinks it should, and I fix it for him. Despite that, he's still a much better chip designer, because he's got 12 more years than I do in that mindset. Daniel, how many years of computer science learning do you have? When did you start learning computers? At age 5, maybe? Cool. Now, remember how long it's taken you to get as good as you are when you think about how long it will take someone to get even half as good at a completely alien piece of computer science. Also, I agree with Ray. Let's let this conversation die. Frankly, I think it's resolved. Our leaning it towards first producing the prototype board, and using that as leverage to acquire more funding or a partner to produce the ASIC. Everyone will get what they want. _______________________________________________ Open-graphics mailing list [email protected] http://lists.duskglow.com/mailman/listinfo/open-graphics List service provided by Duskglow Consulting, LLC (www.duskglow.com)
