EC-14.2 Architecture and Choosing Components
You can divide a system into parts with defined interfaces, justify where you drew the boundaries, select a component against real criteria including availability, and produce a block diagram that a second engineer could build from.
Before:EC-13. Laboratory Practice, in SequenceUnlocks:EC-15. Capstone, in Two StagesEC-17. Industry and Research Experience
Architecture is where the layering argument from the networking module reappears as a general engineering idea: a boundary drawn well means two people can work on either side of it. Component selection is included here rather than treated as shopping, because availability and lifetime decide more designs than performance does, and no course usually says so.
Work through these
Dividing a system, and where the boundaries should fall
A good boundary is one with a narrow, stable interface across it. Boundaries drawn along the lines of who will build each part, rather than what each part does, produce the worst interfaces.
NPTEL: Product Design and Innovation (IIT Guwahati) · CourseThe interface as a written agreement between two parts
Signals, protocols, units, ranges and what happens on failure. Two people can build either side independently only if all five are written down, and most integration problems trace back to one that was not.
NPTEL: Product Design and Innovation (IIT Guwahati) · CourseSelecting a component against criteria you wrote first
List what matters before looking at any part, or the first attractive datasheet becomes the specification. Performance, cost, package, supply voltage, tooling and support are the usual columns.
NPTEL: Product Design and Innovation (IIT Guwahati) · CourseAvailability, lifetime and second sources
A part that is perfect and unavailable is not a choice. Checking stock, the manufacturer's lifecycle notice and whether a compatible alternative exists takes minutes and prevents a redesign.
NPTEL: Product Design and Innovation (IIT Guwahati) · CourseBuilding against buying
A module you can buy costs money and saves time and risk; one you design costs time and gives control. Deciding this deliberately, per subsystem, is a design activity rather than a budget one.
NPTEL: Design Thinking, a Primer (IIT Madras) · CourseThe block diagram somebody else could build from
Every block named, every connection labelled with what it carries, and every external interface shown. A diagram that only its author can read has not done the job a diagram exists for.
NPTEL: Technical Communication for Engineers (IIT Roorkee) · Course
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