Total Frustration with TI

As long as I am griping, I'm trying to read the schematics for the 
MSP-EXP430FR4133 and they are a royal PITA.  First they use a light grey 
for the text on the pages.  I have no idea who thought light grey is an 
acceptable color for anything on a drawing that you actually intend 
people to read.  IDIOTS!

Secondly, the only text anywhere on the drawing that can be treated as 
text by selecting, copying or searching are the bloody pin numbers on 
the parts.  There is no way to search for net names to see what goes 
where.  IDIOTS!

Finally the text labeling the pins is incredibly microscopically small! 
It is less than half the height of the other text on the page.   IDIOTS!

Anyone know what schematic package TI is using for their drawings?  I 
want to make sure I never use it.

I will say they appear to have an interesting design for measuring the 
power of the target.  It appears they are using a DCDC converter 
controlled by an MCU to measure the current by counting the on time of 
the pass transistor.  I wonder what the benefit of this is over just 
using a series resistor and measuring the voltage delta across it.  They 
are dropping 5 volts to 3.3, so the resistor could be between the 
regulator output and the sense point and not cost any extra voltage drop.

They have some patents on this method and even on a compiler feature 
that lets you measure the power of code functions and optimize for speed 
the sections that use the most power.  The patent abstract isn't clear 
on how automated this is.  One thing I noticed is that the patents all 
very specifically mention using an inductor.  So if this is instead done 
with a switched capacitor bank, it would not violate any patents except 
maybe the compiler patent.

-- 

Rick C

On Thu, 23 Mar 2017 22:11:59 -0400, rickman wrote:

> [ ... ] First they use a light grey
> for the text on the pages.  I have no idea who thought light grey is an
> acceptable color for anything on a drawing that you actually intend
> people to read.  IDIOTS!

I think contract web designers designing for their portfolios, not for 
the product.  Everything looks like a high-end restaurant menu.