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Intel Employees Speak Out On Rambus Debacle

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the that-is-no-longer-the-operative-statement dept.

Coupland writes: "A fascinating article from Electronic News Online discussing the fall-out within Intel caused by the Rambus nonsense. The troops seem to be breaking rank." This is definitely the most informative article I've seen on the Rambus / Intel relationship, and it includes a timeline that pretty much sums things up. (What it doesn't mention is the trouble that PC manufacturers like Dell, Gateway, etc., are caused by the constant cycle of delay and deny.)

4 of 89 comments (clear)

  1. Finally. by JurriAlt137n · · Score: 4

    As far as I'm concerned this is one of the best things to have happened recently. At least speaking from the perspective of the end user. Big corp's like Intel going through this kind of trouble often find back some of the spirit they had when they just started up. Instead of being able to sit on their asses and enjoying the fact that they are market leader they will have to fight back which can only result in a better quality/performance outcome towards the end users. It will also allow AMD to catch up even further which might result in a nicely balanced competition between the (currently) major chip-builders.

    People may get fired or quit of their own, and this is a bad thing for those people personally, but the fact that new people and new ideas will enter the company might bring some major improvements.

    --

    People replying to my sig annoy me. That's why I change it all the time.
  2. Finally... but by Aceticon · · Score: 5
    The problem is, that the people they lost, might very much be some of the better amongst them - this is not good for any company.

    The article seems to indicate that Rambus adoption was completly a high level decision, and that the input from the lower levels (the engineering team) was not only disregarded but also, for those that persisted in voicing their diagreement with the technology, punished.
    Altough i believe that choosing Rambus was a bad move, i think that:

    1. "outsourcing inovation" (to Rambus Inc)
    2. Ignoring or even supressing internal opinions
    were by far the worst moves that Intel could've done.

    Think about this:

    1. It's more than obvious that Rambus Inc exists not to serve the interests of Intel, but to serve the interests of it's own members and/or shareholders
    2. Ignoring the opinions that come from experience, and taking punitive measures against those amongst Intel that were brave enough to stick to their opinions, will just push out from Intel the most knowleadgeable and daring - probably the same persons that are more willing to voice/try new and inovative ideas - and leave Intel with less free spirits and more zombies. Zombies do not inovate.
  3. I think this article is sensationalized by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4

    --Now this may go against common opinion, but in a team atmosphere, Intel's so-called "disagree and commit" thing is a common requirement. In general it doesn't mean "shut up and do what management says", it means if the whole team agrees on a particular solution, then you can't have the few who disagree continuing to undermine what you're trying to accomplish.

    For example... pretend I have 10 designers working on an ASIC, and one thinks the protocol we are using sucks. The majority agreed that this thing has a good chance to perform and sell well, but this guy was the odd man out. Now... what do we do? Do we throw away the other 9 opinions and say: "ok, scrap this, we'll do what you want"?

    I've worked with guys like this before. Not only do they refuse to accept the teams decision, but they continue to profess their negative opinions at every chance possible.

    The only reason you guys are eating up the negative view of a single ex-employee, is that the in this case, Rambus did have problems. Even though he may have been right about Rambus, its still tough for me to believe that "employees got bad reviews because they spoke out against Rambus". Chances are, this guy got a bad review because he was being counter-productive.

    -This is the opinion of one guy, just like that article.

  4. Intel Lost It's Culture by casio · · Score: 4

    I left Intel after 15 years. (I've been out 10 months.) I think the main reason for disasters like Rambus and many of the other execution problems is that the traditional Intel culture has been allowed to slip away. Believe it or not, the intenral culture revolved around responsibility and accountability. Around 6 years ago that started to change. Disenting opinions where not welcomed. (Shoot the messager.) and too many decisions are being made too high in the chain. (Specifically technical decisions.)