Note on Merced from Face Intel. Sorry if it's been posted already...
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12 - Message from a Merced engineer.
Hello FACE Intel:
Merced is facing extinction! Deliberate mismanagement and abuse of employees, which is byproduct of Intel's exploitive and unjust human resources polices has been a major issue at Intel in recent years. But today, it is so prevalent that it is seriously taking a toll on Intel's leading projects like Merced.
Intel does not value and appreciate the experience and knowledge of its veteran engineers. This is because Intel has enjoyed enormous success by modifying existing products without major changes. The documents, tools, flows, etc. are readily available and standardized for x86 processors. Hence, even new college graduates (NCGs) can handle most of the design and validation tasks.
The current Intel mentality has forced many talented engineers to leave Intel. This is the reason why when the Merced project was initiated; there were not enough experienced engineers available within Intel.
As the Merced project was kicked off, engineers who could tolerate and support Intel's abusive HR practices, with no management experience got promoted to key management positions. Consequently, these incompetent managers hired many inexperienced and unqualified engineers just to satisfy the high head count needed for the Merced project. Therefore, the project ended up with inexperienced managers leading inexperienced engineers!
Due to continuous management problems, Merced's completion date is getting repeatedly delayed. Even though there is a tape-out date for the project, many engineers question whether Merced will be a competitive product at all, even if it isn't delayed again.
Other products have been enhanced a lot, while Merced is still working hard to hit a fixed performance target, predefined by the architecture. Obviously, Intel does not have the time to go back and improve the architecture. Merced's delay provides invaluable opportunities for companies like Sun to secure and expand their server and workstation business.
Intel is improving P6, especially the Pentium II Xeon performance to compete against Sun's microprocessors, before Merced is available. With the present conditions, Merced would have difficulty beating P6 in performance, if the project completion keeps on getting delayed. As the P6 project keeps on improving, this gap will get only wider and the death of Merced would be imminent.
These delays are getting so ridiculous that the follow-up design of Merced, which is McKinley, could be available almost at the same time as Merced itself. McKinley is an enhancement based on Merced. McKinley has been developed by HP, where engineers have much more experience on microprocessor designs. But the major factor is that HP treats its employees much better than Intel. Due to long term employment policies at HP, engineers stay with the company for a longer time.
At the Merced project, the average engineer's experience is "2" years. That's the fundamental problem, which will never be solved for Merced. Another major problem is that many engineers are losing their hope on Merced. As a result of this lack of faith and a lot management induced pressures, engineers tend to transfer out of Merced. Since they are not allowed to transfer out of the Merced, they quit Intel.
While other projects at Intel are getting rid of people, Merced IS hiring engineers from other projects, or even from outside! Merced is losing its business to Pentium II Xeon and to McKinley. At the same time, Intel is also losing its engineers. Rumors have it that Intel could cancel the whole project all together because they are surer about McKinley's schedule. They could introduce McKinley as Merced. McKinley is very similar to Merced from a customer's standpoint. The major difference is that McKinley would be better! The reason is that McKinley is designed by HP, and not Intel.
The anti-human resources policies and practices of Intel brought up a generation of dictatorial managers who wronged a lot of good, dedicated, loyal, and talented employees. They forgot that they have to be nice to people on their way up, because they would be facing the same people on their way down.
Now, finally almighty Intel would have no choice but to use another company's design! What will this mean for Intel and for the computer industry?
Would finally Intel's fascist executives learn that all that success was not because of them, but rather the contribution of each and every talented, dedicated, and loyal employee made at Intel?
I don't know. I guess we'll find out soon.
Yours truly, Anonymous
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From the same link as my previous post:
faceintel.com
-- Carl |
