( ESNUG 396 Item 8 ) --------------------------------------------- [07/11/02]
Subject: Reader Reactions To "The Genius of Ray Bingham" EE Times Column
> That was a little over two years ago. When I stepped into the Cadence
> suite at DAC last month, I suddenly realized how wrong I was about Ray.
> He may not know technology, but his advisors do. And what I saw told
> me that Ray had organizational skills I hadn't appreciated before. Ping
> Chao, Wei-Jin Dai, Chin-Chi Teng, and Kit Lam Cheong from Silicon
> Perspectives were there. From CadMOS, there was Ken Tseng, Vinod Kariat,
> and Nishath Verghese. From Plato there was Limin He, David Yao, Louis
> Chao, and Wenyong Deng. And from what I heard about Simplex, Steve Teig,
> Tom Kronmiller, Narain Arora, and David Overhauser were coming over to
> Cadence, too.
>
> This shocked me. Instead of Cadence traditionally milking a start-up's
> success while slowly killing off its R&D development, Ray's Cadence had
> the acquired R&D people from the start-ups put into positions of power
> within Cadence! They were replacing the Cadence old guard that had failed
> in that EDA niche. Whoa! Ray's Cadence had gotten over the Not Invented
> Here syndrome. Intergration Ensemble's broke? Use Silicon Perspectives
> instead. Hyperextract's choking? Try Simplex instead. Warp Route's
> dying? Say hello to Plato! Assura-SI gives you flakey results? Then
> replace it with CadMOS. The Cadence Ray has made has no sacred cows.
> Double Whoa.
>
> - from "The Genius Of Ray Bingham"
From: Helene Deng <hdeng@tensilica.com>
But John, many of these talented people were in Cadence before! You made
it sound like Cadence's old guards are no good that they need the fresh
blood. In my mind, it is not what the talented individuals can do, but
how the talents are organized and utilized.
- Helene Deng
Tensilica, Inc.
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From: Mark Rencher <markr@pivotalenterprises.com>
Hi John,
In your recent comments on Cadence and to a large extent Ray Bingham, I
agree that Ray has really turned the Titanic around in some important areas.
Having visited with Ray about 6 weeks ago with Lambert vanden Hoven
(Philips) regarding RF EDA, Lambert and myself made a recommendation and the
results were the Agilent/Cadence alliance.
Ray is a mover and shaker when it comes to business. But what my clients
are looking for are nano-mete" and RF Mixed Signal solutions. Can Ray
close the gap? Time will tell, but Ray needs to focus on making the
nano-meter fabs profitable. You can bet that behind every 90 nano-meter
fab/alliance announcement there is a mandate (I know I was on the Philips
90 nano-meter product selection team while @ Philips) of making the fab
profitable.
- Mark Rencher, President
Pivotal Enterprises
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From: Nir Sever <nir@zoran.co.il>
Hi John,
What amazes me is that Cadence is basically admitting they have no R&D and
by acquiring all these technologies, they won the "IEEE Award For Industry
Leadership In Innovation". What innovation?
- Nir Sever
Zoran Israel
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From: Simon Wilkinson <Simon.Wilkinson@sde.eu.sony.com>
Dear John,
I would agree, having noticed for a while that Cadence now sets the
standard in the EDA industry (if not for others as well) for 'win-win'
acquisitions/'mergers'/'joint ventures'. Three of the recent ones,
CadMOS, Neolinear and Silicon Perspective, were really good moves.
The other big players have realised this -- which I think pushed Synopsys
into the difficult 'merger' with Avanti (which will take some time yet to
bear fruit.)
- Simon Wilkinson
Sony Semiconductor Basingstoke, Hants, UK
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From: Anthony Galdes <anthony@mondes.com>
Hi John,
Hey when you were talking about Simplex, you forgot to mention Aki Fujimura.
I used to work for Aki at Tangent. Wow was that a few years ago! Let's
see we worked together back before the first MAC was introduced by Jobs! It
was before the days of menu driven interfaces, everything was command based.
You must have worked with Tancell or Tangate so you know what I mean
"set variable draw.wire. ..."
Anyway, Aki is the key guy, he knows how to motivate a team, not to mention
create strategic alliances with customers. But you are right, guys like
Tom, Steve and Aki can really make a big difference. What about YT Lin?
Also from Tangent.
- Anthony Galdes
Monterey Design Systems
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From: [ A Cadence Employee ]
John,
Until now I had not realised your were so mis-informed. But full marks for
trying to arouse some controversy. My point is general with regard to all
corporate manouvering, not just Cadence's latest white rabbit.
A policy of buying innovation from small companies seems very short term
to me. The original founders soon leave (after they are vested), are
"assimilated", or piss-off the rest of the organisation with their
arrogrance. Perpetual revolution seems a poor substitute for real
leadership. Perhaps an admission of abject failure even to compete?
- [ A Cadence Employee ]
Editor's Note: I've omitted this person's name to protect his job. - John
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From: Mark Wroblewski <markwrob@colorado.cirrus.com>
John,
Nice column! You get some of the "inside info" I don't, such as the senior
officers of the acquired companies taking apparently substantial roles at
Cadence. Let's hope that continues to hold, it could mark that Cadence will
keep the groups innovating.
- Mark Wroblewski
Cirrus Logic Broomfield, CO
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From: Vladimir Orlt <Orlt.V@ems-t.ca>
John,
It's nice to read about positive stories coming out of what seems to be a
generally dismal EDA industry.
- Vladimir Orlt
EMS Technologies Ste. Anne de Bellevue, Quebec, Canada
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From: Scott Hamm <scott@fulcrummicro.com>
Nice column, John.
- Scott Hamm
Fulcrum Micro
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From: Eric Lin <elin@celestry.COM>
John,
I thought Ray worked for Red Lion Inn and not Red Roof Inn. Can you
double check? I could be wrong.
- Eric Lin
Celestry
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From: Louis Mac <louispmac@yahoo.com>
John,
I liked your info on Cadence's talent pool - but what little I know of the
business stuff - I think Cadence had to go into crisis mode and go out and
buy all these people in a pinch. My colleagues were saying last year that
Cadence physical design tools were going to fall off a cliff soon !?!?!
So Cadence acquired a bunch of companies ASAP to cover their butts.
All I know is that I am years away from an integrated, real common database
back-end flow from Cadence, yet I'm stuck using it for now. Anyway, my boss
never calls me a genius when I have to pull a rabbit out of the hat to
finish my chips, and he never gives me a ton of money to cover the situation
either.
- Louis Mac
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From: Jim Tully <jim.tully@gartner.com>
John,
Great piece!
- Jim Tully, Chief Analyst
Semiconductor Group
Gartner/Dataquest Egham, Surrey, UK
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From: Dale Hayes <dale@simplex.com>
Hi, John,
I'm happy to see Tom Kronmiller recognized in your article. He's a pretty
smart guy, keeps a low profile, and is incredibly valuable in what he
produces -- plus he lives in North Carolina (though he hasn't quite acquired
the accent, we're still working on him.)
Oh, BTW, one small correction on Bingham's bio. It was Red LION Inn.
- Dale Hayes
Simplex Cary, NC
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From: John Jensen <john.s.jensen@intel.com>
John,
Great article.
- John Jensen
Intel
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