[sdiy] Taking a Step towards - - --((FUTURE-PREDICTIONS))-- - -

[Glen]

At 11:23 AM 1/14/04 , TIm Daugard wrote:

>I'm not saying one is better than the other just one is easier than the 
>other. I speak from some experience having built a computer using an 1802 
>processor, TTL chips and SRAM for digital. My 80+ analog modules were far 
>easier to build.

You can add to that, the notion that currently a lot of the coolest digital
parts are tiny SMD packages, sometimes with hundreds of leads, or sometimes
even a BGA package. For a lot of designs, the circuit boards *must* be
multi-layered and carefully planned. This kills the aspirations of people
who wanted to etch their own boards. Also, perfboard, stripboard, and
solderless breadboards aren't so useful for prototyping anymore. 

Yes, some digital circuitry can be a LOT harder to fabricate. I think this
is holding many people back, perhaps much more than the "analog sounds
better" argument. In some cases, the "analog sounds better" argument is
possibly an effort to hide a reluctance to learn a lot of new theory, and
master the new fabrication challenges of modern digital circuitry. It's
much less bruising to the ego to say that "analog sounds better, and that's
why I build analog", than to admit that one isn't technically able to
design and fabricate complex, modern, digital circuitry.

later,
Glen Berry