Long Tail Hardware: Turning Device Concepts Into Viable Low Volume Products
Long Tail Hardware: Turning Device Concepts Into Viable Low Volume Products
复制标题
长尾硬件：将设备概念转变为可行的小批量产品
DOI：
10.1109/mprv.2019.2947966
复制
发表时间：
2019
影响因子：
1.6
通讯作者：
Nicholas Chen
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Steve Hodges;Nicholas Chen
在技术行业采用强大的新算法和云计算的时候，硬件的持续创新是数据中心和边缘计算机的增长和计算要求，而硬件设备为我们的系统提供了关键的网关输入并提供输出。实际上，随着事物的增长，互动和嵌入性硬件产品的融合。具有新形式和功能的创新设备可以分为两个阶段：首先，一个构想，原型设计和设计迭代会导致新的设备概念；超出基本原型的过渡通常涉及创建数百份原型的副本，即预先生产的评估样本或完全刚刚起步的低容量。然而，根据我们的第一手经验，我们经常看到瓶颈在随后的阶段 - 从工作原型到可行的产品的过渡。
At a time when the technology industry is embracing powerful new algorithms and cloud computing, continued innovation in hardware is essential. In addition to the growing storage and computation requirements of data centers and edge computers, hardware devices provide the critical gateway through which our systems receive input and provide output. Whether it is intentional user interaction, continuous context sensing, situated information display, environmental monitoring, or industrial control, we are more dependent on interactive and embedded hardware products than ever. Indeed, as the Internet of Things grows, many predict a dramatic growth in both the number and type of such devices. A key factor in this growth is the ability of those working in hardware to develop innovative devices with new forms and functions. Hardware development can be split into two phases: first, a period of ideation, prototyping and design iteration leads to new device concepts; and then fruitful concepts transition beyond the basic prototype. The latter phase typically involves creating hundreds or thousands of copies of a prototype—either pre-production evaluation samples or a fully fledged low volume product. The hardware device research community and the industry it serves have developed many tools and techniques to aid in the ideation, prototyping, and design iteration phase mentioned above. However, based on our firsthand experience coupled with the observation of others, we frequently see a bottleneck in the subsequent phase—the transition from a working prototype to a viable product. The challenge of this bottleneck, its root causes, and the potential benefits of overcoming it are the subject of this column.