Interesting Editorial I'm cutting & Pasting from www.MatroxUsers.com
http://forums.matroxusers.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=37155
(Forum link contains the editorial as well)
(*Note* Everything between the *****'s is directly copied & pasted the "snips" are from the original editorial as is)
*********************************************
The last editorial has benefitted me with many responses and I appreciate every one. I have just got this in my inbox, and I would like to share it with you. Before you read, be aware that I have confirmed what was written before and had planned on writing about this as well. Since I got the email, I thought this would be the prime time to attack it.
*snip*
while I don't really care much anymore for matrox..
the company, *snip*
the people there are great though.. the best bunch of guys I ever worked with..
*Snip*
in the last set of lay-offs most of the support was decimated.. there is no longer a hardware
compatibility test group.. software testing (driver, apps, etc) is reduced to about 10 people
as usual the end user support trees were chopped.. marketing, sales, and eng. were left
untouched.. luckily tsup managed not to get cut this time..
Unfortunately Haig, and the customers are the ones who are going to suffer again since
his support tree is almost gone..
why is matrox failing..
Financially most people haven't got raises there in about 3 years, paid overtime stopped 2 years
ago, no more bonuses..and they cut all benefits by about 30% morale in the place is at the bottom. if you're still working
there it's because you just waiting for the severance package..and that's the attitude most people have there
Yet the owners donate 20million to a local university in this time of financial decline..
why is parhelia doing so poorly.. I think back to a converstation I had with one of the chief HW engs.
his quote "Most company's have a dartboard that represent that market.. we throw the dart then draw the circles"
marketing could never make up their mind what market the product would sell to.. each week they changed their
minds. so the testing/fixing priorities would keep shifting.. hence you have a product that's mediocre in all categories
Marketing doesn't talk to the outside world.. they believe that they have an inate knowledge of the products people
want.. hence we have 20 people programming "e-dualhead" and such cutting edge technology like
max headroom.. rather than working on OGL code..
Re-investment in RD is almost NIL.. if you look at anand's review of inside NVidia.. they day it was released on the
web.. matrox's asic, and HW eng teams unanimously agreed... company is finshed.. they need to invest close to 500million to have the same setup.. if they did invest in that equipment then. parhelia would have been released on time.. which was about 2 years ago.. it's not liek we didn't try.. we asked for and FIB machine repeatedly starting about 4 years ago...
many good projects were dropped.. ex: video in a chipset.. they would have released it before intel.. but
it was pulled.. at 90% completion!!!! it was already taped out!! and they stopped the chip run..because
at the end they didn't think it was viable.. they even dropped the second stage low power north bridge with
video for laptops..
production goof ups.. Overproduction when it's not needed..forgetting to order parts.. hence too many 4x parhelias, and they won't sell the 8X
until the 4X is gone.. while the 8X is only 20% faster but it fixes pretty much all the problems people
are seeing in the 4X..
expierience.. there are only about 50 people in matrox that have been there more than 5 years, with the last
layoff that number has dropped, most of the guys who design the chip, and are writing the drivers have less than 3 year
expierience in doing this.. hence you always have less performance per clock than the competition.
and they don't have a single analog asic eng.. so when it comes to timings inside the asic, they always miss.
that's been the clocking issues since the G450.. and they're not willing to pay the required salary to hire this
type of engineer..
This pretty much sums up what needs fixing there (all of the mangagement).. anyone you ask will agree..
Sad times for those involved in my eyes. The root of some of their problems are left untouched while the parts that make the company grow and thrive are chopped. When/will they ever get it? One thing that was left out in that email was that many department managers have left without even having a job first.
If Matrox Graphics is to turn things around, they need to first realize that what they have been calling business as usual for the last years is not the right path. I agree completely with the sender's comment about the target and the dart. It fits so well with what I have learned about them.
*********************
Thoughts
The Parhelia could've been ready 2 years ago? They had a 90% Taped out Video Integrated on a Chipset prior to the 810's introduction (atleast I assume that's the chipset they are referring to) and canned the project due to a percieved lack of possible success? Not to mention the complete lack of R&D investment.
The only thing that seems to be keeping Matrox afloat is that they are a Private company as no public corporation's shareholders would tolerate this kind of mismanagement.
http://forums.matroxusers.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=37155
(Forum link contains the editorial as well)
(*Note* Everything between the *****'s is directly copied & pasted the "snips" are from the original editorial as is)
*********************************************
The last editorial has benefitted me with many responses and I appreciate every one. I have just got this in my inbox, and I would like to share it with you. Before you read, be aware that I have confirmed what was written before and had planned on writing about this as well. Since I got the email, I thought this would be the prime time to attack it.
*snip*
while I don't really care much anymore for matrox..
the company, *snip*
the people there are great though.. the best bunch of guys I ever worked with..
*Snip*
in the last set of lay-offs most of the support was decimated.. there is no longer a hardware
compatibility test group.. software testing (driver, apps, etc) is reduced to about 10 people
as usual the end user support trees were chopped.. marketing, sales, and eng. were left
untouched.. luckily tsup managed not to get cut this time..
Unfortunately Haig, and the customers are the ones who are going to suffer again since
his support tree is almost gone..
why is matrox failing..
Financially most people haven't got raises there in about 3 years, paid overtime stopped 2 years
ago, no more bonuses..and they cut all benefits by about 30% morale in the place is at the bottom. if you're still working
there it's because you just waiting for the severance package..and that's the attitude most people have there
Yet the owners donate 20million to a local university in this time of financial decline..
why is parhelia doing so poorly.. I think back to a converstation I had with one of the chief HW engs.
his quote "Most company's have a dartboard that represent that market.. we throw the dart then draw the circles"
marketing could never make up their mind what market the product would sell to.. each week they changed their
minds. so the testing/fixing priorities would keep shifting.. hence you have a product that's mediocre in all categories
Marketing doesn't talk to the outside world.. they believe that they have an inate knowledge of the products people
want.. hence we have 20 people programming "e-dualhead" and such cutting edge technology like
max headroom.. rather than working on OGL code..
Re-investment in RD is almost NIL.. if you look at anand's review of inside NVidia.. they day it was released on the
web.. matrox's asic, and HW eng teams unanimously agreed... company is finshed.. they need to invest close to 500million to have the same setup.. if they did invest in that equipment then. parhelia would have been released on time.. which was about 2 years ago.. it's not liek we didn't try.. we asked for and FIB machine repeatedly starting about 4 years ago...
many good projects were dropped.. ex: video in a chipset.. they would have released it before intel.. but
it was pulled.. at 90% completion!!!! it was already taped out!! and they stopped the chip run..because
at the end they didn't think it was viable.. they even dropped the second stage low power north bridge with
video for laptops..
production goof ups.. Overproduction when it's not needed..forgetting to order parts.. hence too many 4x parhelias, and they won't sell the 8X
until the 4X is gone.. while the 8X is only 20% faster but it fixes pretty much all the problems people
are seeing in the 4X..
expierience.. there are only about 50 people in matrox that have been there more than 5 years, with the last
layoff that number has dropped, most of the guys who design the chip, and are writing the drivers have less than 3 year
expierience in doing this.. hence you always have less performance per clock than the competition.
and they don't have a single analog asic eng.. so when it comes to timings inside the asic, they always miss.
that's been the clocking issues since the G450.. and they're not willing to pay the required salary to hire this
type of engineer..
This pretty much sums up what needs fixing there (all of the mangagement).. anyone you ask will agree..
Sad times for those involved in my eyes. The root of some of their problems are left untouched while the parts that make the company grow and thrive are chopped. When/will they ever get it? One thing that was left out in that email was that many department managers have left without even having a job first.
If Matrox Graphics is to turn things around, they need to first realize that what they have been calling business as usual for the last years is not the right path. I agree completely with the sender's comment about the target and the dart. It fits so well with what I have learned about them.
*********************
Thoughts
The Parhelia could've been ready 2 years ago? They had a 90% Taped out Video Integrated on a Chipset prior to the 810's introduction (atleast I assume that's the chipset they are referring to) and canned the project due to a percieved lack of possible success? Not to mention the complete lack of R&D investment.
The only thing that seems to be keeping Matrox afloat is that they are a Private company as no public corporation's shareholders would tolerate this kind of mismanagement.
