Poll time! We've all seen horrendous decisions by IC industry execs. What was the worst?
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Poll time! We've all seen horrendous decisions by IC industry execs. What was the worst?
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Comments (15)
I'll pick a more recent event, namely the failure of the industry to prevent Qualcom from gaining such a stranglehold on cell phone IP.
Posted by robert | June 16, 2009 10:10 AM
Posted on June 16, 2009 10:10
I'll pick a more recent event, namely the failure of the industry to prevent Qualcom from gaining such a stranglehold on cell phone IP.
Posted by robert | June 16, 2009 10:11 AM
Posted on June 16, 2009 10:11
Here's one more for the list... how about the current fad for IDMs to go 'fab-lite' in the interests of 'increasing shareholder value' and/or 'to better compete with their fabless competitors'
Posted by Malcolm Penn | June 16, 2009 11:50 AM
Posted on June 16, 2009 11:50
In 1985 Doug Dunn and John Brothers of Plessey Semiconductors killed the development of an enhanced CMOS version of the then NMOS PIC family. The project was started as a joint venture with GI Microelectronics which was in the process of being spun out of General Instruments and eventually turned into Microchip. The fact that we had working silicon that was so fast it could outperform any of its existing rivals by an order of magnitude didn't trouble them in the slightest. They were just following the time honoured tradition at Plessey of snatching commercial defeat from the jaws of victory. In 1989 Microchip launched the PIC16C5x family, need I say more, Plessey ceased to exist a long time ago.
Posted by Mark Byrne | June 16, 2009 3:18 PM
Posted on June 16, 2009 15:18
David,
you're much more of a student of history than I am, but I'm surprised to see Lord Weinstock not appearing at least once in any kind of top 10 list of semiconductor blunders and missed opportunities.
Also, when you're done with this one, how about a list of best-ever decisions...?
Cheers,
Paul.
Posted by Paul Hollingworth | June 16, 2009 5:08 PM
Posted on June 16, 2009 17:08
The adoption of a ship from stock and debit system for franchised distributors.
Posted by Dick Skipworth | June 16, 2009 6:17 PM
Posted on June 16, 2009 18:17
Robert, an excellent point vis a vis CDMA but it led to the industry cold-shouldering UMB, and Qualcomm won't have such a`good position in LTE (I assume) so maybe it was a mistake which will be rectified in time
Posted by David Manners
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June 17, 2009 12:19 PM
Posted on June 17, 2009 12:19
Paul, you're right. Arnie's closure of Elliott Automation and Marconi-Elliott Microelectronics in 1971 and pulling out of ASM killed off the UK effort in volume ICs, never to be resurrected. OK for 10 best - any suggestions?
Posted by David Manners
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June 17, 2009 12:22 PM
Posted on June 17, 2009 12:22
Thanks Dick, that's an interesting one
Posted by David Manners
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June 17, 2009 12:24 PM
Posted on June 17, 2009 12:24
the decision to sell Philips Semiconductors to private equity world was hardly a decision made by the semiconductor industry. For the selling party it was actually a pretty good deal. The whole private equity thing is obviously a sore point for many in semi world but there is more than a little selective memory here. I think that 'big company syndrome' effects created the environment that allowed for both Freescale's disentanglement from Motorola & NXP's from Philips to turn out as they did. There are plenty of other howlers committed entirely within semi world that should make us squirm. I recall Ferranti having world leadership in ULA's in the early 1980's, then they opted for the ISC acquisition....
Posted by grumpy | June 17, 2009 1:57 PM
Posted on June 17, 2009 13:57
Do the worst decisions affecting the semi industry have to come from within the industry? How about politics? Depending on where you come from your view of what is worst may vary, for example seeing first hand the decline of Silicon Glen over the past decade has sickened and saddened me, the catalyst I recall immediately preceeding the decline was the EU's decision to pull the plug on duty applied on imported DRAM. Within weeks of that decision there was a raft of announcements from Asian and US companies pulling the plug on EU investment, including Scotland. Then the run down and closures started, they haven't stopped, there's very little left! Sad.
There's such a great pool of talent here, good education system, good work ethic. If my kids decide to follow me into technology, where are they going to go?
Posted by Gary Palmer | June 18, 2009 9:45 AM
Posted on June 18, 2009 09:45
Don't tell me, Grumpy, that Frans van Houten and Michel Mayer didn't have any say in those decisions
Posted by David Manners
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June 18, 2009 4:36 PM
Posted on June 18, 2009 16:36
Gary, I do agee that Si Glen did a great service to Scotland in starting off many an international career in semiconductors. But would the money spent subsidising foreign firms have been more wisely spent in funding native Scottish talent via start-ups? And the decision to go for DRAM fabs was very flaky. As you say - all political decisions, not industry decisions
Posted by David Manners
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June 18, 2009 4:41 PM
Posted on June 18, 2009 16:41
The formation of GPS from GE, Plessey and Siemens - alluded to above. Scores of engineers in Plymouth on gardening leave while viable projects were being canned and drained.
Posted by robert gillatt | June 25, 2009 11:52 AM
Posted on June 25, 2009 11:52
Robert, i don't think Siemens was involved in GPSexcept insofar as Siemens joined with GEC in the take-over of Plessey, and you're right - GPS didn't end well
Posted by David Manners
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June 25, 2009 12:58 PM
Posted on June 25, 2009 12:58