Who Designed the iPhone?

When people ask you what you do for a living, is your response as clumsy as mine?  "Um, you see, well I uh, work for this company that sells software that helps people design computer chips?" is typically what I say.  I sometimes say "I'm an Applications Engineer for Cadence Design Systems," and leave it at that.  Either way, the reaction seems to be about the same- the person I'm talking to quickly changes the subject presumably to avoid an awkward conversation about what exactly this means (or worse yet, end up discussing what "EDA" stands for).

Unless you work for a company that sells directly into the Consumer Electronics space, I bet a lot of you probably work for similarly unfamiliar companies that make chips that go into fantastic products like the iPhone.  When someone asks "Who Designed the iPhone?" I bet most everyone would say "Steve Jobs" or "Apple".  But what about the people who designed the chips that make the iPhone possible?  There is an amazing amount of technology packed into a smartphone and such products wouldn't even be possible if not for advancements made in chip design over the years.  The engineers responsible for delivering the chips that go into the iPhone surely worked under some of the most aggressive and stressful design environments one can imagine.  I hope that these folks get the recognition they deserve for their accomplishments.

Which leads me to our Question of the Day: "Does the Digital Design Community receive the credit it deserves for designing the iPhone?"

Please post a comment below with your thoughts.