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Writing and Editing
Illustrations and Presentations
Visual Analogies
Documentation Audits
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We provide complete contract writing
services. We can also audit existing documentation to determine the
extent to which it meets readability, completeness, accuracy, rapid
random-accessibility, security, and customer-needs criteria. And we can train your staff how to write better.
We write original (start-from-nothing) and semi-original
(start-from-something) documents, including:
- Engineering Specifications
- Hardware Reference Manuals
- Programming Reference Manuals
- Data Sheets
- User Guides
- Operating and Maintenance Manuals
- Application Notes
- Technology Overviews
- White Papers
- Jury Presentations
- Comparative Analyses
- Documentation Audits
- Training Classes
- Management Presentations
Our methods page tells
how we approach writing. Our projects and examples pages
include many examples of our past projects. We write about these and related technologies:
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Integrated Circuits: microprocessors
(CPUs), parallel and multicore processors, digital signal processors (DSPs),
graphics processors (GPUs), systems-on-chip (SoCs), embedded and reconfigurable processors, controllers, programmable
logic devices (including reconfigurable logic), gate arrays,
mixed-signal devices (analog and digital), application-specific integrated circuits
(ASICs), and application-specific standard products (ASSPs).
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Networking: routers, switches, cell phones, and other devices for Internet (TCP/IP, UDP), Ethernet, wireless (802.11 WiFi and WiMax, IR,
RF, Bluetooth), SONET/SDH, ultrawide band (UWB), and optical communication technologies.
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Electronic-Design Automation (EDA): system
partitioning; executable specifications using transaction-level
modeling (TLM) in SystemC; logic design and simulation in a
hardware description language such as Verilog, SystemVerlog,
or VHDL; design capture; register-transfer-level (RTL) design;
physical design, synthesis, layout, and floor planning; verification;
and model libraries.
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System Software: operating
systems, compilers, debuggers, initialization and test procedures, network
and peripheral interfaces, application binary interfaces (ABIs), hardware abstraction layers (HALs).
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Application Software and Middleware: programming languages (C, C++, Java, and other object-oriented languages),
databases (SQL and others), financial and accounting systems, large-system modeling, enterprise resource
planning (ERP), application programming interfaces (APIs).
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Security and Data-Collection Systems: supervisory
control and data acquisition systems (SCADA), distributed control
systems (DCS), building and communication security, security
audits, building security and automation.
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Electric Power Generation and Transmission: load
balancing, production cost, capacity planning and management,
integrated system operator (ISO) protocols, regional transmission
operator (RTO) protocols.
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Semiconductor Processing: vacuum,
deposition, transport, power, test, and clean-room equipment.
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Biomedical and Clinical Medical Systems: hardware
and software systems used in molecular-biology research and
clinical analysis.
The creation of illustrations is an integral part of our writing services. Pictures are worth a thousand words, and we are experts at translating technical concepts into figures that illustrate the functions of a technology.
Our illustrations can be added to your existing documentation, or we can create original PowerPoint or PDF presentations for your conferences, shareholder meetings, or litigation.
We can be especially cost-effective at preparing litigation presentations, because our billing rates are substantially lower than those of attorneys and we know how to communicate more clearly and effectively than most attorneys.
Warthman Associates is adept at creating visual analogies that explain technical concepts to non-technical audiences. These analogies are presented as pictures, with accompanying text. They contrast commonly understood objects and processes with technical objects and processes that work in essentially the same way. The analogies are an excellent means of helping people understand technologies that might otherwise be confusing.
See our Visual Analogies Examples.
If your company is spending too much time providing
personal technical support to your customers, your
documentation may
be one source of the problem. An audit of your documentation can expose the
problem and propose corrections.
Documentation audits analyze criteria such as:
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Completeness of content.
- Accuracy of content.
- Consistent organization and coverage of topics.
- Consistent use of names.
- Consistent style of language.
- Compliance with industry, copyright, and trademark standards.
- Protection of confidential information.
- Organization of documents for fast, random access.
- Readability for audiences who have learned English as a second
language.
Products such as supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA)
systems and distributed control systems (DCS) may be especially vulnerable
to errors in documentation. Such systems are often the cornerstones
of security infrastructures and must be kept safe, accurate, and
fully functional at all times. Documentation audits can help achieve
this.
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