Digital Design Career: Advice on Skills & Knowledge Needed

[ShockPulse]

Hey everyone,
I'm currently going on my last year for my associates degree in electronics and will commence electrical/computer engineering next year. I just want to ask for any advice on digital designing (embedded systems design) careers and info.

What skills are useful to have? What do you find is the most difficult element in this field? Are NI Multisim and Xilix ISE used frequently? How important are C, Unix knowledge, Verilog and VHDL?

Lastly, would electrical or computer Eng be more suitable for such interests. My outlook on it is that electrical is for a more broader range (Analog, networking, digital, etc), while computer is more for software/hardware balancing and digital design. Although both sides may specialize and there's a lot of overlapping, what do you think?

Thank you for any advice!

 

[Kenneth Mann]

Hey everyone,
I'm currently going on my last year for my associates degree in electronics and will commence electrical/computer engineering next year. I just want to ask for any advice on digital designing (embedded systems design) careers and info.

What skills are useful to have? What do you find is the most difficult element in this field? Are NI Multisim and Xilix ISE used frequently? How important are C, Unix knowledge, Verilog and VHDL?

By embedded systems do you refer to software embedded within an ASIC or FPGA, etc system, or do you refer to ASIC/FPGA/etc embedded within a CPU controlled system, or a hybrid. Is your interest the software or the hardware? (Both can be programmed.) For ASIC/FPGA/CPLD programming, VHDL or Verilog are usually considered essential in most places, the choice of which, depends upon the place. Also a modeling/simulation package is considered a staple at most places. Which packages will be needed will, unfortunately, depend on the place, so you might need to learn a little of several. Verilog and VHDL do essentially the same thing but the feel of each is different. VHDL is considered to have the greater capability, but Verilog is considered easier to master. Neither, however has much simulation capability, so another package, such as Modelsim, etc. is needed.

KM

P.S. Xilinx is not the only player. Altera and Xilinx are considered at the top and on about the same level, but Actel and Lattice are also players.