Get Smart About Automation - Caducous Cyborg Concerns

The Amp Hour · 8 Oct 2014 · 1h 11m · Episode 219

What this episode covers

Dave Jones and Chris Gammell discuss the viability of online CAD tools by testing them in an isolated environment, specifically on an airplane, comparing local tools like KiCad and Altium with cloud-based options like CircuitMaker and Upverter. They analyze the economic impact of automation on electronics design, noting how integration on silicon reduces the need for dedicated hardware engineers, and review SparkFun's data on engineering time allocation. The conversation concludes with a review of the Intel MAX 10 FPGA, the open-sourced Parallax Propeller chip, and broader concerns about the rising costs of semiconductor manufacturing at companies like Samsung.

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