Italy is out of FPGA world?

No workshops in UK either :(

Gentlemen,

Altera is offering a summer workshop series for designers as well. The current schedule (for Europe) includes sessions in Milan on October

30, and in Bedfordshire on November 20. You can view the program and enroll to attend online:

Jesse Kempa Altera Corp. jkempa at altera dot com

A few years ago Peter Alfke told me that Italy represents a rather small share of the European market for Xilinx. I guess that's the reason...

-Arrigo

"Valeria Dal Monte" ha scritto nel messaggio news:9qkbb.335067$ snipped-for-privacy@twister2.libero.it...

Well, if you think that some multinationals put Italy into their SEMEA division (South Europe, Middle Europe and Africa), you can guess. We are considered just like Bulgaria or Libia and, with all the respect for these countries, I think we could deserve a little more.

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Lorenzo

Lorenzo,

I think it is not a matter of Libia or Bulgaria or other countries: if the FPGA market in Italy can't swallow enough chips, then Altera/Xilinx/XYZ will simply neglect this market. I can understand their position.

Luca Ponte

"nameiswolf" ha scritto nel messaggio news: snipped-for-privacy@posting.google.com...

Good point, but this seems a little like the story of the chicken and the egg (I don't know if the anglo-saxon people are familiar with it, I will explain if needed :)). How can the FPGA companies expect some interest from Italy, if they don't invest a penny in creating this interest?

FPGA are without any doubt an interesting matter, at least more interesting than the average of what you study at the university; I have graduated completely unaware of their potentials, and I've had to learn them by myself, but many others won't (and the older, "classic" electronics engineers consider FPGA a thing completely out of their jurisdiction). The only way to spread FPGA knowledge is to teach them directly into the universities. FPGA and DSP are almost an unknown matter in the italian universities; it would take nothing for a giant like Xilinx or Altera to invest some spare money to "help" creating new italian engineers interested in FPGA.

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Lorenzo

Hey Lorenzo,

It is incredible that in response to an inquiry about technical workshops you found it appropriate to insult some countries (in fact whole regions!; even continents!!), and state little else. Way to approach the problem !

Ljubisa Bajic ATI Technologies

--- My opinions do not represent those of my employers ---

"Ljubisa Bajic" ha scritto nel messaggio news: snipped-for-privacy@posting.google.com...

Insult?! I have simply said that some multinationals consider Italy (from a *business* point of view) just like countries that are objectively far less industrialized than us. Italy is in the G8, Libia and Poland aren't even in the G20. When I say we "deserve" better, I mean that we could have a lot more technological resources to invest in FPGA world. This is a fact, not an offense.

I didn't mean to insult anyone! If I did so, I apologize to whoever could have been offended. Probably the guilt is my bad english, I'm not able to express all my thoughts exactly. :)

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Lorenzo

The G8 membership might distort the picture a bit. South of say Bolognia there is not much Technology anymore. A few Tomatoes and Olives plus lots of companies using the cheap labour for simple jobs.

Rene

even if I agree on the overall picture, in south-italy there are R&D and manufacturing plants of companies like ST-microelectronics, Ericson and a few others. I think that there is a potential market for FPGA.

Tullio Grassi

Italy isn't completely out of the picture, I mean ST is in top 10 of world semi comps which used to be Thomson + SGS + Mostek + Inmos etc, still mostly Franco Italian UK, last I heard was still run by SGS guy (Pastorio ??). And they even have design centers in Sicily last time I heard.

Still if Xilinx doesn't show, the Altera guy said they would. I am a bit surprised to hear UK isn't on the map, that can't be right.

johnjaksonATusaDOTcom

"Rene Tschaggelar" ha scritto nel messaggio news: snipped-for-privacy@news.teranews.com...

I agree. In fact, I don't think we will be members for much time again.

"Bologna", I live at 20 km from there. :)

You forgot pizza, mafia and mandolino!

As someone has already told you, there are some exceptions. The south of the Italy is less industrialized than the North, but still it is more industrialized than some southern and midwest areas of the USA.

However, your consideration is sostantially correct. The main reason of this decadence (that involves North as well as South, even if in different ways) is due to the political choices made from the eighties to the present time: constant reduction of funds for school and research, cultural impoverishment driven by media, laws that support cunning people, tax evasion and corruption (and I might add that things are going to get even worse, with the current government infested by thieves, xenophobes, separationists and so on).

In spite of this, however, we still have something to say; italians are those who very often invent things (even if sometimes they do it outside of Italy). FPGA/DSP neglect is more a "cultural" problem rather than a technological one.

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Lorenzo