Chip Design outsourcing appears inevitable, EEs told

EE Times ^ | September 25, 2003 | Ron Wilson

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[martin_fierro]

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Silicon Valley Slang

[DannyTN]

"We attained our great level from MOTIVATION, NECESSITY, and IMAGINATION. "

It's time we imagine the future if we keep giving away our technologies and advantages. Realize what is necessary for us to survive in a competitive world marketplace. And get motivated to do something about it, before it's too late.

[JohnSmithee]

"That is the fact, but what would happen in the short term if we revalued our currency at a realistic level versus the others? All those foreigners who are holding US government debt would suddenly find their holdings grossly devalued and what would be the final result of that? "

These ara really good questions and considering recent statements made by the IMF concerning the value of the USD I would like to hear some answers.

[Sunnyvale CA Eng.]

"Engineers should get their butts out of their cubicles, and develop personalities, so they can adequately explain to non-techie people how to use the technology that gets developed. Yes, this means that they will be selling things rather than just tinkering around a lab bench coming up with crap that people either don't need, or can't understand. Clear enough, now?"

Your understanding of engineers' personalities, job descriptions appears limited to the stereotypical tape on the glasses, pocket protector, white shirt, "nerds" from 40 years ago.

The notion that engineers are "just tinkering around a lab bench coming up with crap that people either don't need, or can't understand" is ridiculous. Engineering is almost always market driven. It is rare that engineers are given an open-ended "just come up with something" job description.

Similarly, by the time a high tech product gets to the public the hard core tech details have been sanitized and distilled down to the most basic monosyllabic instructions (with pictures for the illiterate). You do not need to know how a DVD player works to watch a DVD, in fact you may not have even read the instructions when you opened the box.

[GiovannaNicoletta]

Well I guess I'll tell my high school freshman to forget about pursuing that mechanical engineering degree he covets so badly.

Jeez.

[Lazamataz]

Oh boy, this is great! More Americans lose their jobs!

''The more we cut away at the incentives for people in the U.S. to take up engineering careers, the more we undermine out ability to innovate."

Yay! < Texas_Dawg_Mode>

[Dan Evans]

Regulators in the US pretend to be concerned with safety and environmental standards but most of what has been done recently is not.

We have virtually shut down the nuclear industry and petrochemical refining industries because of regulations that are illogical, counterproductive and which change daily. We carefully regulate the size of holes in Swiss cheese. We are not allowed to have any hiring standards that might possibly have a disparate effect on the racial composition of the workforce. We treat alcoholism as a protected disability but we pay billions when an alcoholic tanker captain runs his ship aground.

Many corporations have to compensate for the poor academic preparation of their employees by bearing the expense of their in-house remedial education programs. And then there are the lawsuits. Bogus lawsuits for asbestos, for leukemia from high tension power line exposure. All junk science. Standards? We've lost all legal standards. This is a pack of jackals ripping our guts out.

Let's let companies set their own standards and let's the public decide who the good guys are and who the bad guys are and sanction them appropriately.

[Lion in Winter]

Ah, yes.... here's some neat job ideas that I saw in an Ad for a local job fair. I am not looking, but the types of ads caught my eye.

Jobs in the security field sound promising. Guarding all the rich stockholders property/stuff/bodies for $8-10 an hour. Be Armed for maybe, $12 per hour. Or, how about a job monitoring the alarm systems....$10 per hour.

Then, there is police and firepersons jobs.

Let us NOT forget insurance sales. That is always a good job.

Oh, and what about jobs in the military. Knocking out terrorists/other bothersome/nasty folks. This is always a great career/volunteer path to travel. The military was going to have "representatives" at the job fair. WHY AM I NOT SURPRISED??

Any job that will provide for the safety, care and feeding of the elites/stockholders/economically powerful/politicians..... well, these will be great careers, right? Suppose so.

!JOBS! JOBS! This whole darn job loss thing is enough to test the patience of JOB!

[Dan Evans]

The international free market in currency establishes the value of the dollar. No one controls it.

[Lion in Winter]

I know a mechanical engineer.... graduated with honors from a very prominent University about 15 years ago. He is a sales manager of a truck tire manufacturer now. Makes a little less money and travels all the time. His wife and kids hate that.

He hates it too.

[JohnSmithee]

"The international free market in currency establishes the value of the dollar. No one controls it."

That may be true, but it doesn't mean that it can't be influenced.

[JohnSmithee]

"The international free market in currency establishes the value of the dollar. No one controls it."

The important factor is the value of the dollar relative to other currencies such as the Yuan, which is pegged to the value of the dollar.

[_Jim]

Just check out the Want Ads from any large parper

WRONG basis for comparison - LARGELY that's where advertising for common jobs takes place ...

[_Jim]

The IC pie is going to get much, much bigger. That is the point many people are missing.

I'm with you on this one - we haven't even tapped HALF the applications yet that electronics, high performance digital processing, artificial intelligence, neural networks coupled with visual recognition and display technologies and house-hold robotics are capable of ...

[Dan Evans]

You could become a Hutterite and work for $6.00 a month:

Where Communism Works in America

 

 

[Dan Evans]

Most of the applications of electronics are frivolous but it is essential that we lead in the field. America was able to fight WWII on two fronts because we were able to re-tool our peacetime industry over to a wartime industry. Electronics are essential to modern warfare and if things get really bad we will need the industry here in the US, not in a country that we may be going to war with.

On that note, China has stated that it intends to take Taiwan eventually (by force if necessary) and the US is pledged to defend Taiwan.

[_Jim]

Electronics are essential to modern warfare and if things get really bad we will need the industry here in the US, not in a country that we may be going to war with.

We have SUBSTANTIAL foundary assets still on our shores - NOT to worry on this account yet.

TI, in Dallas, has significant investment in modern wafer processing (foundaries or 'front ends') facilities on their Expressway site - they haen't been shuttered yet and I'll let you know when they are ...

[JoeSchem]

Why on Earth would a bright person want to become an EE? Oh, because his father thought it would be a good career move . . . the same father who wanted him to go into nuclear engineering, just months before Three Mile Island . . . I'm speaking hypothetically, of course.