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What can hardware designers learn from the software world?

There is sometimes tension in hardware design about software design practices - "They (software people) are sloppy in design which is why their code is always buggy. We (hardware people) are much more careful and rigorous which is why our devices have few problems." There's an element of truth in this. The economics of hardware design and the impracticality of fixing a problem after manufacture require much tighter design and verification. But the complexity of software and dependency on multi-source IP are much higher than in hardware. Either way, today the point is moot. Hardware is no longer an island. We build systems, a mix of hardware and software. Even more important, innovation is moving much faster in the software world than in the hardware world. Again, economics. No semiconductor maker comes close in revenues to Facebook, Apple, Google, Amazon, Baidu, Tencent, etc, etc. It's long past time for us in hardware to pay closer attention to what's happening in software development.

Moshe Zalcberg, CEO of Veriest gave the opening keynote at DVCon Europe on just this topic. What can we learn from software design and verification? If you're feeling opinionated, weigh in. Just click on this link to vote on selected questions on the topic. And by all means comment. I'd prefer you go through the link and comment there so Moshe can collect all input in one place.
 
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