Analog design in the information age

Electronics, broadly defined here as that corpus of knowledge amassed particularly since WW2 days about signal generation, processing and display using low-inertia electrical elements, is at a critical turning point. We are immersed in two paradigm shifts simultaneously. First is the transformation of this entire field, but especially the classical analog circuit domain, from a largely technological craft into a commodity business. Design - the choice of form and features, the introduction of key innovative advances, and the optimization of our products through a succession of expert trade-offs while grudgingly recognized as necessary, is increasingly perceived as just a subservient aspect of the struggle to greater competitiveness, profitability and shareholder value. The prevailing view is that time to market and cost are more important than elegance and finesse. This shift in priorities portends the demise of the custom-designed product, to be replaced by Lego-block systems implemented by the re-use of standard analog cells in just the same way as has happened in the digital field. The second paradigm shift is the ascendancy of the Bit and the common expectation of a digital solution for every problem and an inherently better solution, just by being digital. Are these assertions about the future shape of our industry really true? This paper will. answer that the first is an oversimplification, and that the second is a sheer miscalculation.