Monthly Archives: September 2009

One Laptop Per Child

Posted on September 18, 2009 by paulmcl

The one-laptop-per-child (OLPC) seems like it must be a good idea: create a cheap (under $100) laptop for children in poor countries. With access to computers, children could take control of their education and…well, good things anyway. However, things have … Continue reading →

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How long should you stay in a job?

Posted on September 17, 2009 by paulmcl

How long should you stay in a job? The answer will depend a bit on your personality. But I think a job is interesting so long as you’re learning a lot and that seems to mean that you should stay … Continue reading →

Posted in management | Comments Off

Running a salesforce

Posted on September 16, 2009 by paulmcl

If you get senior enough in any company then you’ll eventually have salespeople reporting to you. Of course if you are a salesperson yourself this won’t cause you too much problem; instead, you’ll have problems when an engineering organization reports … Continue reading →

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Mergers and acquisitions

Posted on September 15, 2009 by paulmcl

There were three interesting acquisitions in the last week or so: Apache aquired Sequence, Synfora acquired Esterel Studio and Global Foundries acquired Chartered. The Apache/Sequence acquisition is interesting for a couple of reasons. One is that both companies are private and … Continue reading →

Posted in eda industry, management | Comments Off

Semiconductor cost models

Posted on September 14, 2009 by paulmcl

One of the most important and under-rated tasks in a semiconductor company is creating the cost model. This is needed in order to be able to price products, and is especially acute in an ASIC or foundry business where there … Continue reading →

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Friday puzzle: states

Posted on September 11, 2009 by paulmcl

Today’s puzzle is a word puzzle: find a pair of US states whose letters can be mixed together and re-arranged to make a different pair of US states. Last week’s puzzle was the cucumbers drying in the sun. There were … Continue reading →

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Chips and change

Posted on September 11, 2009 by paulmcl

I’ve been reading an interesting book on the semiconductor industry. It’s called Chips and Change by Clair Brown and Greg Linden. I got sent a review copy (there are some tiny advantages to being a blogger) and I’m not sure … Continue reading →

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Hunters and farmers: EDA salesforces

Posted on September 10, 2009 by paulmcl

I wrote recently about mergers in the EDA space, mainly from the point of view of engineering which tends to end up being double booked keeping the existing standalone business going while at the same time integrating the technology into … Continue reading →

Posted in sales | Comments Off

CEO pay

Posted on September 9, 2009 by paulmcl

If you are an investor, what do you think the best predictors for success for a startup are? If you could pick only one metric, which one would you use? Peter Thiel, who invested in both PayPal and Facebook so … Continue reading →

Posted in investment | Comments Off

Guest blog: Steve Schulz

Posted on September 8, 2009 by paulmcl

Today’s guest blog is by Steve Schulz. These days Steve runs the Silicon Integration Initiative, Si2. Prior to joining Si2 Steve was VP corporate marketing for BOPS. Prior to that he had a long tenure of nearly 20 years at … Continue reading →

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