Bil Herd

MCG LLC - Principal Engineer

2000 - Present

Responsibilities:

• Hardware architecture and system-level design
• High-speed PCB design (DDR3/4, USB 3.x, PCIe, GigE)
• Signal integrity analysis and impedance control
• Analog signal conditioning and data acquisition
• Power distribution and thermal management
• Engineering-grade 3D printing and rapid prototyping
• Design for manufacturing (DFM) consultation

Technologies:

• ARM Cortex-M microcontrollers
• FPGA/CPLD (Xilinx, Altera/Intel, Lattice)
• Altium Designer, KiCAD
• High-speed digital design (multi-gigabit signaling)
• Mixed-signal layout and analog circuit design
• Rick Hartley PCB stackup methodology

InterActive Network Systems - Founder

1995 - 2000

Achievement: Built into one of Southern New Jersey's most successful business solution providers.

Services:

• Network infrastructure design and implementation
• Business IT solutions
• Systems integration
• Technical consulting

Indian Valley Manufacturing - Senior Engineer

1986 - 1995

Major Achievement: Designed ultrasonic backup sensor for vehicles (1986) - technology now standard on modern vehicles.

Work:

• Machine vision systems
• Ultrasonic sensing technology
• Automotive electronics
• Pattern matching algorithms
• Co-author on patent for n-dimensional pattern matching

AW Computer Systems - Consulting Engineer

Consulting

Highlight: Machine vision systems - design and development of vision-based inspection and pattern recognition hardware.

Work:

• Machine vision system design
• Image capture and processing hardware
• Pattern recognition and inspection systems
• Various engineering consulting engagements

Commodore Business Machines - Senior Hardware Design Engineer

1982 - 1986

Promoted to Senior Engineer by age 24

Major Projects:

• Commodore 128 (1985): Designer - Rare single-designer project where one engineer (Bil) sat down and created the complete design. Dual-CPU (8502 + Z80), triple-OS (C64, C128, CP/M), backward compatible with C64. Most successful of Bil's designs.
• TED Series: Lead engineer - Original TED prototype and architecture
• Plus/4 (1984): Lead engineer - Integrated productivity software in ROM
• Commodore 264 family: Lead engineer - C16, C116 variants

Technical Achievements:

• Designed complex multi-chip systems with custom ASICs
• Managed tight production schedules and cost constraints
• Led engineering teams on multiple concurrent projects
• Developed testing and manufacturing processes
• Created backward-compatible architectures

Working Conditions: High-pressure environment with aggressive timelines - designed complete computers in 6-9 month cycles, from concept through production.

Hardware Design

• System architecture and block diagram development
• Processor selection (ARM, FPGA, microcontrollers)
• Mixed-signal circuit design
• Power distribution and regulation
• Thermal analysis and management
• EMI/EMC design and mitigation
• Component selection and vendor qualification
• Design for manufacturing (DFM)

PCB Design

• High-speed digital (DDR3/4, USB 3.x, PCIe, 10GbE)
• Controlled impedance routing
• Signal integrity analysis and simulation
• Power integrity and PDN design
• Rick Hartley stackup methodology (no split planes)
• 4-12 layer designs, HDI when needed
• Altium Designer expert
• Design rule checking (DRC) and verification

Analog Design

• Precision instrumentation amplifiers
• ADC/DAC selection and implementation
• Sensor signal conditioning
• Low-noise design techniques
• Filter design (active and passive)
• Reference voltage circuits
• Analog/digital ground separation

Digital Systems

• FPGA/CPLD design (Xilinx, Altera, Lattice)
• Microcontroller systems (ARM Cortex-M)
• Memory interface design (DDR, SDRAM)
• High-speed serial protocols (USB, PCIe, Ethernet)
• Parallel bus design
• Clock distribution and management
• JTAG and boundary scan