Tom Kopec

tek@acm.org

©2012 Tom Kopec

Starting Down the Road• BSECE 1980, Microwaves

• Job offers that didn’t seem that much fun

• Took a job with a company I wanted to work foro Manufacturing Engineering

o Learned a LOT about actually making things

o Met many really smart people, and many really practical people

• Everybody brings something to the table

• You can learn something from everyone

• The folks who do the work know the most about thework

• You are never the smartest person in the room

First Startup• Worked with incredibly smart people

• Most of whom were also really excited about theproduct

• No boundarieso Where I first really learned programming

o Where I first really explored the innards of UNIX

• Fast pace

• Don’t count on the stock

Design Engineering• DEC Low-End Systems Group

• Verification Engineero I knew nothing about verification or simulation

o But then again, neither did pretty much anybody else

o Proposed something that “can’t be done”

o Did it anyway

o Ended up being an important part of future development

o Be bold, but be sane

• Design Engineero Because I didn’t screw up too badly, got be design engineer of record on

the follow-on product

Project Leader• Systems Engineering

o More overall responsibility for the product

o Many people involved

• Close relationship with the silicon gango Best chip folks on the planet. Even today.

• Physical Technologyo Driven by performance requirements

Decoupling• Electrical properties vs. manufacturability

Printed Circuit Boards• Performance vs. cost

Printed Circuit Boards• Inventory flexibility

Project Management• “Alpha PC”

• Very tight schedule

• Just under 5 months start-to-finish

• Called in favors from folks I had met along the trail

• “The Evolution of the Alpha AXP PC”o In http://www.1000bit.it/ad/bro/digital/djt/dtj_v06-01_1994.pdf

Lessons Learned• Even though many engineers shy away from

evolutionary design because it lacks the glamour ofdoing things from scratch, evolution is a finemethodology. This is especially true if the cost ofeach step along the way is small.

• Sometimes, the best way to show that something ispossible is to build a demonstration unit.

Lessons Learned

• Clear goals can make development proceedfaster, since alternatives that run counter to thegoals need little analysis--they can simply berejected.

• Qualification, test, and assembly issues must beaddressed as part of the design rather than asannoying details to be addressed later. Addressingthese issues during the design phase may delay thedelivery of the prototype, but doing so helps toensure that the prototype is of high quality and toavoid the risk of longer delays later in the project.

Customers in Need• DECtalk

• Speech synthesis for people who really need it

• Work-a-day systemo Full day of operating battery life

o Rugged

o Decent-looking

• 1992o Not much available in the low-power arena

• Get creative!

DECtalk Express

DECtalk Express

DECtalk Express

Mistakes, I’ve Made aFew…

• DECtalk Express power fuse

• Footprints

And Now for SomethingCompletely Different

• Aerosol particle analysis

Aerodynamic Time-of-Flight Particle Sizing

• Stumbled upon the job in the newspaper

• Very different set of peopleo Research scientists

o Pharmaceutical companies

o Mechanical engineers

• New things to learno Photomultipliers

o Vacuum systems

o Lasers and optics

o Accuracy, precision, and traceability

o And, eventually, Linux

• New things – new energy!o Change of perspective

Consulting• Kinda scary to be out on your own

• Lots of different projectso Networking

o Storage

o Energy

o Linux Kernel

o Virtualization

• You know you’re wanted

Fun Stuff• Electronics restoration

Fun Stuff• More restoration

Construction Projects• Headphone Amplifier

Cars

Ham Radio• Great technical playground

• Great place to make connections

Slides at http://kopec.us/m5/2012mar30_5.pdf