Editorial: April 11, 1996

This is a little advice on details: Forget them, and you're finished.

My Compaq Contura 4/25c notebook computer is 3½ years old. It's been a good machine for me. I've taken it around the world a few times. Most of EDN's sales staff uses these machines, too. They have served us well.

However, like most notebook and palmtop computers, the Contura 4/25c's Achilles' heel is its hinge. On many of the EDN notebooks, the hinges loosen after a year or so. I soon became the notebook-repair technician for the sales staff. I discovered that the hinges were all loose because the screws that fasten the lid of the notebook to the hinge were backing out, due to the jolts and vibration that portable equipment often experiences. In fact, several of the notebook computers had loose screws rattling around inside their cases.

Preventing screws from backing out in portable equipment isn't a big engineering problem. A lock washer or other locking technology is all that is needed to prevent this type of failure. It's a detail. It's not even an electronic detail. Yet, a detail like this can make or break a product.

Many times, we get blinded by the magnitude of the big things: processor architectures, exotic memory schemes, ultrahigh-frequency communications, gigahertz operating frequencies, and so on. These aspects of design technology are certainly important, and you must attend to them. However, don't forget the details.


Steven H. Leibson
Editor In Chief