I'd like to add some points to what Dave Tweed already said in his answer, which I agree with.

• Reverse engineering usually has lots to do with researching undocumented features, and reverse engineering is a legal mean of obtaining information about a design of a competitor, so it has industrial relevance in the electronics field.

• Reverse engineering is also a standard practice in cases where you must cope with a design whose blueprints have been lost (say you have a sophisticated and expensive niche instruments to repair/upgrade and the manufacturer has gone bankrupt and cannot be contacted any longer).

• Not yet/well documented silicon/firmware bugs are undocumented "features" that need to be researched.

• Often a designer must research whether a component can be used outside the characterization provided by the manufacturer. This is a sort of research on undocumented features. This may involve complex statistical analysis on batches of the part and usually can be outsourced to manufacturer for a price. But sometimes you need to to that yourself because, for example, the manufacturer asks too much or is not going to do it has not the expertise to do that (think of the characterization of a component in extreme environmental conditions, e.g. freezing cold, extreme hot or vacuum).

So, IMO, questions about researching undocumented features/behaviors of a component or a design are well withing the scope of our site and electronics design in general.

I'd like to add some points to what Dave Tweed already said in his answer, which I agree with.

• Reverse engineering usually has lots to do with researching undocumented features, and reverse engineering is a legal mean of obtaining information about a design of a competitor, so it has industrial relevance in the electronics field.

• Reverse engineering is also a standard practice in cases where you must cope with a design whose blueprints have been lost (say you have a sophisticated and expensive niche instruments to repair/upgrade and the manufacturer has gone bankrupt and cannot be contacted any longer).

• Not yet/well documented silicon/firmware bugs are undocumented "features" that need to be researched.

• Often a designer must research whether a component can be used outside the characterization provided by the manufacturer. This is a sort of research on undocumented features. This may involve complex statistical analysis on batches of the part and usually can be outsourced to manufacturers for a price. But sometimes you need to to that yourself because, for example, the manufacturer asks too much or it is not going to do it or it has not the expertise to do that (think of the characterization of a component in extreme environmental conditions, e.g. freezing cold, extreme hot or vacuum).

So, IMO, questions about researching undocumented features/behaviors of a component or a design are well withing the scope of our site and electronics design in general.

I'd like to add some points to what Dave Tweed already said in his answer, which I agree with.

• Reverse engineering usually has lots to do with researching undocumented features, and reverse engineering is a legal mean of obtaining information about a design of a competitor, so it has industrial relevance in the electronic fields.

• Reverse engineering is also a standard practice in cases where you must cope with a design whose blueprints have been lost (say you have a sophisticated and expensive niche instruments to repair/upgrade and the manufacturer has gone bankrupt and cannot be contacted any longer).

• Not yet/well documented silicon/firmware bugs are undocumented "features" that need to be researched.

• Often a designer must research whether a component can be used outside the characterization provided by the manufacturer. This is a sort of research on undocumented features. This may involve complex statistical analysis on batches of the part and usually can be outsourced to manufacturer for a price. But sometimes you need to to that yourself because, for example, the manufacturer asks too much or is not going to do it has not the expertise to do that (think of the characterization of a component in extreme environmental conditions, e.g. freezing cold, extreme hot or vacuum).

So, IMO, questions about researching undocumented features/behaviors of a component or a design are well withing the scope of our site and electronics design in general.

I'd like to add some points to what Dave Tweed already said in his answer, which I agree with.

• Reverse engineering usually has lots to do with researching undocumented features, and reverse engineering is a legal mean of obtaining information about a design of a competitor, so it has industrial relevance in the electronics field.

• Reverse engineering is also a standard practice in cases where you must cope with a design whose blueprints have been lost (say you have a sophisticated and expensive niche instruments to repair/upgrade and the manufacturer has gone bankrupt and cannot be contacted any longer).

• Not yet/well documented silicon/firmware bugs are undocumented "features" that need to be researched.

• Often a designer must research whether a component can be used outside the characterization provided by the manufacturer. This is a sort of research on undocumented features. This may involve complex statistical analysis on batches of the part and usually can be outsourced to manufacturer for a price. But sometimes you need to to that yourself because, for example, the manufacturer asks too much or is not going to do it has not the expertise to do that (think of the characterization of a component in extreme environmental conditions, e.g. freezing cold, extreme hot or vacuum).

So, IMO, questions about researching undocumented features/behaviors of a component or a design are well withing the scope of our site and electronics design in general.