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by genmud
615 days ago
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Software companies have focused on efficiency, which is why the cost of building software has steadily decreased over the last 30-40 years. From my perspective a lot of that is because the tooling and mindset for hardware is stuck in 1980s/90s. Compared to modern software development, there is very little to no automation in hardware design. Things like CI for hardware designs and even automated version control are just starting to become a thing in the embedded space. Automation like building Bill of Materials, build pdfs, gerbers are not in any way optimized. Scaling embedded stuff (design, manufacture, etc.) is very much a linear thing today, which is why salaries are low. |
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On the electronics side, better modules like RPi's compute module, open source footprint libraries, and reference designs have significantly sped up development since I started twenty years ago. What used to take weeks or months in Altium can now be measured in days, especially if companies publish their reference designs in the application format instead of PDF. The turn around time and cost on PCBs have also dropped precipitously, to speak nothing of the turn key assembly that the fabs offer. Pretty much the only thing that has stayed the same is that MetCal induction soldering irons are still the best.
On the mechanics side, it's hard to appreciate just how much better vendors' CAD libraries have become, to the point where you can drag and drop Misumi/Mcmaster/etc parts from a Solidworks extension onto your assembly like it was Gary's Mod. 3D printing alone has made everything more efficient during development and has enabled many interesting production designs from rocket nozzles to turbojet engines.