Page 60 - The Art and Science of Analog Circuit Design

Gregory T, A. Kovacs

terms of band diagrams. I'll share with you some of our "indoctrina-
6
tion" techniques . . .
First, we administer an exam to weed out the people who should really
be learning about French history or something like that. Here are a few
sample questions:
Choose the single best answer.

1) The best all-around programming language is:
a) C
b) C++
c) BASIC
d) Fortran
e) solder

2) A "GUI" is:
a) a productivity-enhancing graphical user interface for modern com-
puters
b) useful for opening beer bottles
c) a voltage regulation circuit invented by famous Dutch EE
Cornelius von Fritzenfratz
d) who gives a crap, this test is about analog circuits!
3) Analog circuits are:
a) circuits involving only resistors and capacitors, like in first-year
electronics, dude
b) circuits built with digital logic and no more than two discrete tran-
sistors that you debug by reprogramming EPROMS until they
work
c) not needed now that we have the "Newton"
d) really cool
4) SPICE is:
a) stuff like salt and pepper you put on your food
b) the reason nobody needs to build real circuits at all
c) a program designed to see how quickly your computer bogs down
when doing floating-point operations
d) the only reason we need computers, other than Tetris.™
5) "Solder suckers" are:
a) PG-rated, but can occasionally be seen on National Geographic
specials
b) the black holes of circuits, often seen running around with current
sources invented by Mr. Wilson (from "Dennis the Menace")
c) people who are lured into analog circuit design by evil professors
d) plastic pumps used to remove solder from component leads where
those uneducated about analog design have made mistakes

These techniques have been developed over several decades by carefully selected teams of
scientists from all over the world.

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