Newsgroup: it.comp.hardware.cpu
Titolo: A Sere', Merced gna' fa'...

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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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;-)
Lorenzo Allegrucci

Lorenzo Allegrucci
ohh ohh ohh.... ma la fonte e' valida?.. 
voglio dire.. ci son riscontri sulla cosa???
dopo tutto  "Anonymous" non mi sembra una gran firma.. 
anche se capisco la riservatezza del tizio ;) ;)
il continuo rimando di merced.. sembra dare qualche supporto..
e si sapeva che la gente in intel era trattata "dura",, ci sono 
state notizie anche su questo gruppo no?..
ma a 'sti punti.. 
mah.. forse lo scrittore ha delle amarezze sue proprie.. certo che 
le critiche che fa al PII mi colpiscono piu' di tutto il resto.. 
"This is because Intel has enjoyed enormous
success by modifying existing products without major changes. "
una cosa che si dice da tempo su PII no? eppure  c'e' chi non 
ci crede ancora.. intendiamoci.. una fabbrica che non spreme al massimo
i prodotti che ha ,o tenta di farlo, non credo ci sia.. ma in 
intel , per la parte cpu almeno, e' un po' di anni che non tentano
nulla... ahhh si.. MMX!
. 
mah.. se la storia ha un seguito. please sappici dire.. 
sono abbastanza.. stupito.. delle dimensioni della cosa..
non sara' una esagerazione??
mhhh va a finire che sara' HP a venire fuori con IA64.. 
(esagero esagero.. lo so.. eppoi intel a me non ha fatto nulla
di male.. ma finche' cerca di prendermi(ci) per i fondelli,  e non 
si accorge di non lavorare + in monopolio.. non mi e' simpatica!)
ciao r.d.