As an engineer (also), I would suggest that if he acknowledges that the year of Christ's birth is subject to an inaccuracy of about one year around the midpoint of -4 C.E., then his precision of December 25 is perhaps subject to doubt.

The engineers that I knew didn't see it as an engineering issue to begin with.

Incidentally, I was in China on 12/31/2000 and 1/1/2001, and that government considered 1/1/2001 to be the first day of the new millennium.

As for the use of the C.E. versus A.D. terminology-yes, C.E. is relatively new.

I can only remember it being in use for about 50 years. A.D. has indeed been the standard nomenclature, but the majority of the world's peoples do not hold to the same religion as Mr. Abraham and C.E. is a bit more considerate of the majority's sensitivities.

Bruce Hyman
ISD Reader

Dear Peggy,

Loved your March editorial ("Will the Real Enchilada Please Stand Up?" March 2001, p. 8). Yes, what is an SOC? I don't know. I used to say it had to have logic, memory, and a processor. But the analog sounds right, too.

You're right on the next ones. What is an embedded system? And worse (gasp) what is a tape-out? I thought I knew what taping-out was-you need to get GDSII out of the tool. But after that infamous tape-out contest, it sounds like every tool that drives a design toward tape-out-which means every EDA tool that exists-can claim tape-out status.

Thanks for getting these semantic issues on the table.