But there was a "beer-and-pizza" discussion group that had the famous National Semiconductor designer, Bob Pease, ranting against EDA experts, CD-ROM distributors and, in some cases, his own management, who felt that field application engineers (FAEs) could be displaced by well-crafted guides and cookbooks.

Early in his career, Pease had resigned in protest against management's assumptions that engineers should not speak to customers. The then president of Teledyne Philbrick, where the op amp was invented and where Pease got his start, believed that engineers should probably be locked in a cage and fed through a grill-the same way you'd treat a wild beast-despite the fact that engineer-to-customer reaction had resulted in some very successful Philbrick products.

Pease was in fine form on the beer-and-pizza panel. "Expert systems?! Spice?!" he sputtered. The interaction among designers in the same group- what Pease called a "beer check"-was 1,000 times more valuable than what EDA tools would tell you, he said.

Meanwhile, consultant Paul Rako of Rako Engineering argued that the knowledgeable FAE often gives out information that is unavailable from data sheets and applications (sometimes offered as friend-to-friend advice). Rako summed it up this way: "You appreciate the human contact provided by the FAE. He may not be able to help you every time but, if he's honest, he builds loyalty for his company and its products."

The analog EDA contingent, represented most prominently by Tallis Blalock, chief technology officer of Snaketech, said intelligent use of a simulator could eliminate a lot of trial and error in the selection and placement of components, whether in chips or boards. But he argued that (frankly) there are no pushbutton solutions for analog design.

There's no simulating an EE.