SFD: Solutions by Design: brief activity overview

Introduction:

SFD is a microelectronics design consultancy founded by and based around the skills and experience of Steve Fairhead. Capacity is flexible; we have access to specialists in many fields as and when required. We believe our strengths lie in good project management, in a meticulous design approach which results in effective quality levels far beyond the norm for the industry (especially in software design), and in an understanding of the need for maintainable (i.e. comprehensible & clear) designs.

The following is a very brief overview, in note form, of our activities. It is by no means exhaustive; please contact us for more details of where our experience might be relevant to your application.

Steve Fairhead: background:

• personal: industrial microelectronics design engineer; over 30 years practical experience in electronics and instrumentation design, manufacture, testing, and application. Fluent French (European background & education). Married, 2.2 kids. Active musician and promoter.
• previous occupations: R&D Manager, electronics display systems manufacturer. Project Leader, R&D dept. of a control & instrumentation manufacturer. Test equipment designer/manager. Musician, sound engineer, tech/roadie.
• SFD - "Solutions by Design": established independent consultancy March 1, 1987. Aims: to support and exploit the interface between electronics hardware and computer software. Small business: low overheads, professional & experienced service. Flexible capacity: good contacts with industry colleagues.

Activities:

• Software design (real-time, control, comms, embedded, PC)
• Electronics design (linear, digital, micros, ASIC)
• Interfacing & connectivity ("getting item A to talk to item B")
• SCADA (Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition) and general industrial comms (RS-232, RS-422, RS-485, modems, networks)
• ATE (Automatic Test Equipment) design, construction, programming, support
• Internet/intranet design, installation, support, maintenance
• Website design (HTML 4.01, style sheets, multimedia)
• Unix (OpenBSD et al) design, installation, support, maintenance
• Audio engineering (recording, production, mastering; multimedia, voice-overs)
• PC music production (multimedia, MIDI)
• PC system specification, sales, support, application
• Documentation (manuals, sales literature)
• Research, advice, & general consultancy

Software design specialities:

• Software designed for embedded micro and PC (et al), using 'C' and/or assembler (H8, 80x86, 68k, 6800/6300, 8051, 64180, Z80, TMS7000, 6502, etc.), and structured languages in general. (We consciously avoid C++ where possible [please feel free to ask why!].) DOS, Unix (xBSD), and OS-less systems supported.
• Rigorous and well-proven structured & object-oriented design methods are used, resulting in exceptionally clean, reliable, and maintainable software. We always strive for, and usually achieve, demonstrably "right-first-time" designs - we design to avoid bugs, we don't simply hope we'll catch them later.
• Our methodologies make much use of such handy buzzwords as: determinism & predictability; state machines & explicit error/exception handling; object-orientation; self-documenting code; defensive programming; maintainability; clarity, clarity and yet more clarity.

Some examples of past projects

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