You'd be surprised how often I have unearthed bugs inside chips. At first it's "Oh, no, that can't be, that must be your layout". A few iterations and some bench tests at the manufacturer later ... "Oh s..t!"
Board level design isn't that tough. Ok, costs time but the layout is not expensive. But then you know what it does and where its limits really are.
Even worse are chips with the power devices on there. That's like a seismic sensor on a Harley engine.
-- Regards, Joerg http://www.analogconsultants.com/ "gmail" domain blocked because of excessive spam. Use another domain or send PM.
That sort of thing always sounds more cool when boards are getting sent off to the fab house at a nice high rate. It sounds much less so when the boards are back and built and only almost meeting spec because the chips are never as good as they say they are unless you're using them exactly as intended -- and then sometimes not then.
-- Tim Wescott Wescott Design Services http://www.wescottdesign.com Do you need to implement control loops in software? "Applied Control Theory for Embedded Systems" was written for you. See details at http://www.wescottdesign.com/actfes/actfes.html
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