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Frustrations with Marketing

Here is a perfect example of what is wrong with Marketing in engineering companies. I recently asked Xilinx for a "Spartan-3 Resource CD". It has been a couple of weeks since I requested it, so I don't remember if I expected it to contain something especially useful (like a copy of Webpack) or if I thought it would contain only data sheets. In any event, it came today. It does not contain Webpack. It only uses less than 100 MB of the available 650 MB to provide a few data sheets, app notes and the Acrobat reader. What's more, when it autostarted on loading the CD, it opened a window for Flash player. But this Flash player does not seem to work correctly and I can't use it to view anything past the second level of menu.

I can read any of the data sheets on the CD without the viewer. But what is the point of spending a lot of time on this silly viewer only to have it not work on an otherwise functional machine? Also, what is the point of sending out this sort of marketing drivel for free and yet charging to send out "free" software which is much harder to download intact from the web site? I can download data sheets and app notes easily even over my slow modem connection. IIRC, the Webpack is about

180 MB for the newest release. Why does this necessitate a charge to get a copy on CD when CDs are clearly considered a minor expense? In volumes of 1000's CDs only cost around a dollar to make and mail including US postage.

In general, I find marketing at most companies to work against their best interests. But then they do make for good copy in the Dilbert column.

--

Rick "rickman" Collins

rick.collins@XYarius.com
Ignore the reply address. To email me use the above address with the XY
removed.

Arius - A Signal Processing Solutions Company
Specializing in DSP and FPGA design      URL http://www.arius.com
4 King Ave                               301-682-7772 Voice
Frederick, MD 21701-3110                 301-682-7666 FAX
Reply to
rickman
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Marketing is full of engineers who couldn't design their way out of a paper bag.

Reply to
Jerry

paper

Ever seen three design engineers standing around, trying to figure out how to work a Xerox machine?

Reply to
Vinh Pham

That's not a design-engineering problem -- that's a user interface problem. The design engineer did NOT spec how the UI interacts with the human user.

The design engineers were given a task: "Put ten buttons and a display on this board. Here's what should happen in response to keypresses."

It's up to the company's usability people (if such people exist) to determine what sort of front panel is needed and to ensure that whatever they come up with makes sense.

Besides, if an engineer designed the interface, it'd be all hex :)

-a

Reply to
Andy Peters

Yup, usability isn't given much thought these days. And when it's done well, no one notices.

LOL. I had a boss who could multiply two digit hex numbers faster than you could use a calculator. Scary.

Reply to
Vinh Pham

On a sunny day (Wed, 1 Oct 2003 08:05:01 -0400) it happened "Ron Huizen" wrote in :

I have been technician in a TV broadcast environment for many years. You had to repair equipment you did not even have a clue how to use. 'the video editing of this machine has problems, can you have a look at it?' (Large quadruplex 1 million dollar machines...) I'd ask: Can you show me so I can see what is wrong? (So I could see how they used that interface...) Then get out the manuals and find the defective transistor or whatever component..

But the expression on the face of those people if they figured you did not even know how to use it... hehe And it always needed fixing immediatly too. I always told them, 'I don't how to use it, you show me, then I will fix it.' Only engineers understand that perhaps.. JP

Reply to
Jan Panteltje

it.'

LOL, "I just write the code, it doesn't mean I know how to use it."

That started to happen a lot as our product got more complex. After a while, I couldn't reproduce bugs by myself, I had to get help.

Reply to
Vinh Pham

Xilinx's marketing is about as bad as it gets. Frankly, I'm surprised that they are the largest FPGA vendor. I have had bad experiences with them in the (far) past. In particular, when they changed vendors for the serial proms. They cut off the old vendor with the (wishful) thinking that the new one would take over. Well, the new one choked big time and us users were left holding the bag. At the time I was running my own company and desparately needed those parts. Good luck!!! I was F**KED!!! Peter took exception the last time I mentioned this. In private e-mail I reminded him that if Xilinx doesn't ship product he still collects his pay check - as a private business owner if I didn't ship product the revenue stopped.

My latest run in with brand X shouldn't have happened. I thought I was doing them a favor by ordering a license renewal for $4K. Guess what? XILINX SCREWED UP!!! We have a year end deadline (Sep 25); did Xilinx care? NO!!!! Only by Hurcelean effort did I mananage to get the order placed (after I started a week and a half before the deadline). I got an apology from them. But SO WHAT!!

I think they have gotten full of themselves and don't really care. They know us suckers have to deal with them no matter what. Well, maybe we do. Doesn't make me feel any better.

Reply to
Tom Seim

There are a great many aspects of this line of work that put the small business owner at a great disadvantage. Allocation is one of the big ones. Right now everyone is trying to get my business even though it is not very large at this time. But as soon as the market starts growing again I am sure I will be back at the bottom of the "call" list.

I won't say your experiences are unique, but I don't think Xilinx is in the habit of ignoring their customers either. But I do agree that the growth of a company makes it much harder to do business with in an efficient way. In that regard, Xilinx is no exception.

A larger company has the option of redesigning a product with an alternate FPGA if a vendor switches to the "dark side". But the small company with lower volumes does not have that luxury until the problem becomes untenable. Even then schedules may preclude such a change. In those cases, the small business is just SOL. That is why all new boards use as few parts as possible that can not be replaced. I much prefer to not use serial proms of any kind and like to keep the FPGAs as generic as possible. The Xilinx parts would have had an advantage on our new board, but they are not supporting modular configuration on the Spartan

3s and so they are the same to us as the Cyclone chips at this point. 
--

Rick "rickman" Collins

rick.collins@XYarius.com
Ignore the reply address. To email me use the above address with the XY
removed.

Arius - A Signal Processing Solutions Company
Specializing in DSP and FPGA design      URL http://www.arius.com
4 King Ave                               301-682-7772 Voice
Frederick, MD 21701-3110                 301-682-7666 FAX
Reply to
rickman

Way back when we designed with basic logic parts (good old 7400 series) that we could get from multiple vendors. Now we have to use complex parts from single sources. The last design I was working on before closing my company was from ZF Micro, which used NSM as their only foundary. That was ok, I was told, because NSM was an investor in ZF Micro. Guess what? NSM pulled the rug out from under ZF, and good by MACH-Z. If I had been struggling to stay in business that, for sure, would have sunk me.

The plus side of FPGAs is they are high volume parts and Xilinx does have a good track record of producing parts for a long time period. The proms are now multiple sourced, so they aren't the problem they used to be.

That last joust with their marketing people left me in a slow burn...

Reply to
Tom Seim

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