Sharing of Information

As a veteran of the PCB industry, specifically spending most of my career in the CAD/CAM segment; I think I can accurately describe myself as having access to a great deal of information. Also, having worked for and with every major PCB CAM software vendor, I can also accurately say I have a deep understanding of front-end engineering and data flow.

One of the things I consistently find to be an issue is the flow of information. Sharing of information from one system to the next, even one department to the next.

Back in the late 90's, Valor had the right idea and made incredible headway both from a marketing and technical perspective as they pushed the ODB++ format. Now I am not going to go into any kind of format debate, and I'll be the first to point out some of the glaring technical issues in the ODB++ format. But that's not the point I wish to make. It's the IDEA of a common format, containing information from many areas in the vertical market, being shared. In each node of the vertical market, the format can be spread across the horizontal plane of the specific engineering or manufacturing needs.

Recently, there has been interest, and progress in the area of open standards for the exchange of information in 3D CAD and mechanical engineering. See the Web3D Consortium website for details. But I think even this falls a bit short. In essence, what we need is really more of an evolution of ideology in the transfer of information. We need an exchange platform.

The complexities of communicating information across the multiple disciplines involved in the manufacture of modern electronics requires more than a simple all-inclusive data format can ever offer. We need to be able to communicate business rules along with the actual nuts-and-bolts data. Again, I think that Valor (probably by accident) got close to this when they included ERF's in the list of files exchanged with ODB++. ERF stands for Engineering Resource Files, or possibly External Resource Files or a host of other possible definitions...Valor seemed to waffle a bit on the actual definition. Whatever the acronym stands for, the files contain a set of manufacturing rules of varying complexity. As a side-note, Frontline PCB strangely seems to be moving away from ODB++ as the basis for their CAM systems.

Any software engineer out there will probably give the knee-jerk reaction of "well, idiot, we will obviously utilize XML to exchange the information." Obviously. And, have you, Mr. Engineer ever actually implemented any systems that exchange information in XML? Writing the XML is the easy part. Defining the schema in such a way as to communicate the actual intent of the data is the challenge. Again, I believe that a communication platform will eventually evolve. This platform will incorporate business rules as well as manufacturing and engineering rules. And it will also handle that pesky geometric data, too.

Considering that most North American PCB manufacturers still can't even get 100% RS-274X data, I'm not exactly expecting such a platform in the next year. However, I am currently employed by a very forward-thinking PCB software company which leads me to believe there is hope.

Getting Stuff Done

Has anyone noticed how hard it is to get in touch with someone? Those that know me, and have to work with me might say I'm even harder to reach than most folks.

On my laptop, I have about a half-dozen communication modes or more. I have three primary email accounts, plus dozens more I seldom use. I have Skype, Google talk, and two cell phones that you can call or SMS. Still, I miss calls that go into voicemail, I don't see the little popup that says someone is chatting me. Or, sometimes I'm actually "out of the room (gasp)". With all the communication methods, its still sometimes difficult to reach people when you need them. Personally, I'm going for that absent-minded-too-many-balls-in-the-air-genius meme. I don't know what everybody else's problem is.

At this writing, the 2007 holiday season approaches rapidly, and somewhere around 40% of the people I know are out of the office. If I were to need to get something done, it would be difficult. Luckily right now I am waist deep in sticky, tricky, gnarly coding (props to Danny Brown in Dallas for re-acquainting me with the term "gnarly"). So all I have to contact is ... well ... my compiler. "Computer? Acknowledge!"

Back to work...

I was recently inspired to begin using this blog again. After a short foray into the exciting world of finance, I'm back in the great sucking vortex that is the North American PCB industry.

Lucky for you, dear readers (yes, all seven of you), I'll be morphing the format slightly, focusing a bit more on the personalities in the industry.

DISCLAIMER:: The opinions expressed in this blog are strictly my own (or my eleven year old daughter's), and anybody silly enough to employ me does not necessarily endorse aforementioned opinions. So if you are offended by anything here, you need to
a)relax a bit, and
b)not contact my employer, past employer, future employer, or the guy that drives the truck that delivers the milk to the convenience store down the street to complain about my offensiveness.

RoHS/WEEE Ready

I am pleased to announce that all of Solidigm System's products and services are now RoHS/WEEE ready. Following the lead of Frontline PCB Solutions (see press release), we have verified that all of our software is ready to meet the demands of customers who are seeking to comply with these "green" directives.

Additionally, all of our software now meets the EPA's highest standards for harmful emissions of hydrocarbons :-)

Overheard In A Board Shop

- Hey, do we have any more 5 1/4" floppies for the drill machine?
- So tweak the values on the ERFs and THEN send them to the customer.
- They said the other board shop didn't have any problem with the data.
- We build coupons...once in awhile we get a couple of boards on there too.
- Is 20 mils too far to scale a drill?
- What time is it in Hong Kong?

Breakthrough In PCB Materials

I recently read an article on a circuit board made using chicken feathers and soybean-based epoxy. You can read the article yourself on www.treehugger.com

Now, I'm not a regular reader of Treehugger (as you would likely guess if you ever met me), but I found this article fascinating because of the obvious implications. According to the author, the new chicken-feather and soybean circuit board is actually faster than traditional circuit boards. This because of a higher dielectric constant. And to think that all those silly laminate manufacturers have been muddling around for years with exotic and expensive materials. Silly, silly scientists...

Also, as the (presumably tree-hugging) author points out, these new materials "...are derived from renewable plant and animal feedstock, which use carbon dioxide from the air and help minimize global warming as compared to petroleum feedstock". Wow, chickens that breathe carbon dioxide!? Now THAT certainly lends credibility to the story.

So now, inspired by this groundbreaking news, I'm in the throes of development of an ultra-high-speed, flame-retardant PCB laminate using common nose hair trimmings and recycled boxer-short elastic. It seems that the lifespan of boxer short elastic has plummeted in recent years due to their increased exposure to UV rays (they used to be hidden from the sun). And, it has been proven (or maybe just implied) that the tons of nose hair trimmings decomposing in landfills is contributing to the greenhouse effect. My solution could single handedly save mankind. Stay tuned.

Mobile Phones, WAP, and The Evil Service Provider

This is a bit off-topic, and kind of a rant; but hey...it's my blog, right? And it will end up having something to do with circuit boards. At least I think it will.

About a week ago, my wife (who is not exactly a bleeding-edge techno-nerd) asked me about putting a custom ringtone on her mobile phone. I (rather arrogantly, and shortsightedly) replied: "I guess any script-kiddie out there could probably create a ringtone out of an MP3 and send it to your phone in a few minutes. I'll take care of it some morning while I'm having coffee..."

Now, I understand a few things about mobile technology. I know what WAP, WML, CDMA, and GSM are. I know that the worldwide ringtone market is estimated at around $4Billion/year. Hard to believe until you see your bill after your teenage daughter finds all the real music polyphonic ringtones on GetItNow! or similarly convenient services.

So I find some tutorials, some software, and some other rants and begin putting the pieces together. Should be able to simply send an email message to the phone with an MP3 attached, right. Nope, never makes it through SMS gateway at the service provider. How about one of those $20 "create-a-ringtone" software packages? Nope, phone can't seem to access the URL's. After some more digging, I find out that with ALMOST EVERY service provider (e.g. AT&T, TMobile, Cingular, Sprint, and about a hundred I've never heard of), this all works relatively seamlessly. Only a handful of providers make it more difficult...well, maybe just one and it happens to be my provider, Verizon. Anyway, I hand-code some Python to send a special SMS to the phone, and it ends up working. Then one of my friends announces "oh, I use a website that lets me do all the ringtones I want for like $10 a year..." ARRGH!

CAUTION: TOPIC DEVIATION AHEAD

So as I'm investigating all of this rediculous-ness I happen to look a bit deeper into one of those PCMCIA-based wireless broadband deals that gives you unlimited broadband over a wireless (e.g. "cellular") connection for $59/month. Yes, I often get sidetracked. So I'm thinking "I could just get one of those and use my Skype account to make all my phone calls, and I'd have unlimited mobile communication for $60/month." Of course, I'd have to tote around a full-size laptop. So now I'm in search of an ultra-portable, possibly wearable, super-battery-life PC with a PCMCIA slot. In later articles, we may discuss the technical challenges facing PCB shops who attempt to build such a device...or maybe we won't.