Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1199133
16 DESIGN007 MAGAZINE I JANUARY 2020 ately went into a startup where I was employee #7. This was in the early '80s, and in '82, we were doing 300 baud modems using red and blue hand tape. This was right after the breakup of the Bell operating companies when they finally unbolt- ed the modems from the phones. You couldn't plug any equipment into the wall jack at that point. The Federal Government broke up the Bell companies, which meant you could plug a third-party modem into the wall jack. At our startup company, we went from 300 bauds to 1200–2400-baud modems. At that point, Rock- well International came up with a chipset mo- dem that was basically two chips, an RJ-11 jack, and a transformer, and that put us out of business. At that point, I started working for other companies. I worked for Tekelec Inc. for 14 years, doing protocol test equipment and inter- faces. This was back in the days of ISDN, SS7, and other protocols. I was doing portable box- es as well as rack-mounted equipment. Around 2001, Tekelec Inc. had a divisional change, and they sold the test division to Cata- pult Inc. I worked for Catapult for eight years. We did more rack-mounted test equipment and compact PCI proprietary backplanes and miscellaneous tabletop boxes. Catapult was Feature Interview by Andy Shaughnessy I-CONNECT007 At PCB Carolina, I had the chance to speak with newly minted CID+ instructor and long- time musician Dave Seymour. He had just passed his evaluation class as a Certified IPC Trainer (CIT) for CID+ instruction, and he was eager to talk about his experience as a PCB de- signer and EPTAC instructor. A few weeks af- ter this interview, Dave received his formal ap- proval to become a CID+ instructor. Congratu- lations, Dave! Andy Shaughnessy: Dave, can you tell us a little about yourself? Dave Seymour: I work for Ixia, a Keysight Busi- ness, as a PCB designer. Ixia was acquired by Keysight Technologies about two years ago. We have many top-notch engineers. Keysight has about 12,000 employees now. We have of- fices all over the world, including Morrisville, North Carolina, and Calabasas, California, Shaughnessy: What's your background? Seymour: I graduated from a two-year tech school with an engineering degree. I immedi- Meet Dave Seymour, Brand-new CID+ Instructor Dave Seymour