# PFES-ENG-009 — Knowledge Synthesis

**Status:** Active  
**Knowledge Cycle Stages:** Understand

## Purpose

Convert evidence into reusable engineering understanding, profiles, relationships, and hypotheses.

## Engineering Problem

Evidence alone does not explain firmware. Relationships, confidence, context, and cross-family reasoning are required.

## Historical Engineering Evolution

Interpretation was once embedded in analysis scripts. It became a separate layer so conclusions could evolve without recollecting evidence.

## Engineering Discoveries

- Engineering knowledge evolves faster than evidence.
- Profiles are hypotheses until validated.
- Confidence must accompany conclusions.

## Architectural Decisions

- Keep synthesis traceable to evidence.
- Preserve competing hypotheses.
- Human review remains authoritative.

## Knowledge Produced

- Profiles
- Capability models
- Genealogy
- Compatibility hypotheses
- Engineering dossiers

## Knowledge Consumed

- Evidence
- Validation
- Hardware observations
- Historical context

## Current Engineering State

Current Stage 6 work synthesizes device profiles and recipient candidates. Ranking outputs must be interpreted correctly: the current capability donor firmware is GDR-8050L, so present ranking primarily concerns capability recipient firmware, not donor selection.

## Engineering Lessons

- Synthesis organizes hundreds of observations into usable engineering models.
- Automated inference must not hide uncertainty.

## Negative Knowledge

Project Frankenstein no longer assumes:

- A high score proves compatibility.
- Generated profiles are automatically authoritative.

## Current Implementations

- Stage 6 profile generation
- Recipient candidate analysis
- Manual review

## Future Implementations

- Confidence models
- Cross-family synthesis
- Automated hypothesis tracking

## Open Questions

To be expanded during engineering review.

## Why This Chapter Exists

Knowledge synthesis turns raw findings into something engineers can act upon.
