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FW: Xilinx Acquisition of CoolRunners

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Brian Boorman

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Jun 18, 1999, 3:00:00 AM6/18/99
to
Dear Valued CoolRunner Customer,

We are pleased to inform you of a change in ownership of the CoolRunner
product
family. Philips Semiconductors has elected to sell its CoolRunner
Programmable
Logic business to Xilinx Inc. This sale includes the CoolRunner XPLA
and the
CoolRunner 22V10 devices. The CoolRunner product family will
benefit from
dedicated and expanding support due to the new arrangement.

Xilinx intends to keep and enhance the CoolRunner product line. In
the near
term, the primary goal during the transition is maintaining the same
level of
service and support you have come to expect of the CoolRunner product
group.

Philips Semiconductors and Xilinx are grateful for your
understanding and
patience in this time of transition. If you have any questions,
please feel
free to call us at 1-888-COOLPLD or email your
questions to
coo...@abq.sc.philips.com.

Sincerely,

Xilinx Inc. and the CoolRunner product group

Tom Burgess

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Jun 18, 1999, 3:00:00 AM6/18/99
to
For those interested, more info can be found in the Xilinx press
release at http://www.xilinx.com/prs_rls/philacq.htm

Tom Burgess

Steven J. Ackerman

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Jun 29, 1999, 3:00:00 AM6/29/99
to
On Fri, 18 Jun 1999 14:59:42 -0400, Brian Boorman
<XZY.bb...@harris.com> wrote:

Bye bye Coolrunner...


--
Steven J. Ackerman, Consultant
ACS, Sarasota, FL
s...@gte.net
http://www.acscontrol.com

Peter Alfke

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Jun 30, 1999, 3:00:00 AM6/30/99
to Steven J. Ackerman

"Steven J. Ackerman" wrote:

> On Fri, 18 Jun 1999 14:59:42 -0400, Brian Boorman
> <XZY.bb...@harris.com> wrote:
>
> Bye bye Coolrunner...
>

Just the oppopsite:
Welcome Coolrunner, now you will be supported by a company that understands
Programmable Logic.

Peter Alfke

WildBeach

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Jul 1, 1999, 3:00:00 AM7/1/99
to
>Just the oppopsite:
>Welcome Coolrunner, now you will be supported by a company that understands
>Programmable Logic.
>
>Peter Alfke
>

So, a PLD family designed by people who don't "understand programmable logic",
bought by people who were silly enough to purchase something designed by
(claimed) incompentents, and supported by people that don't know how to spell.

Sorry, couldn't resist :-), you left yourself too open.


Peter Alfke

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Jul 1, 1999, 3:00:00 AM7/1/99
to WildBeach

WildBeach wrote:

>
>
> So, a PLD family designed by people who don't "understand programmable logic",
> bought by people who were silly enough to purchase something designed by
> (claimed) incompentents, and supported by people that don't know how to spell.
>
> Sorry, couldn't resist :-), you left yourself too open.

So some person who is ashamed to use his own name tries to be funny.

I was serious. There never was anything technically wrong with CoolRunner. I
remember meeting the Philips FAE and asking him: "If you are as good as your data
sheet claims, why haven't you "killed" all the other CPLD vendors?" And his
answer had something to do with pricing.
Philips is just the latest in a long string of main-stream IC companies who
cannot ( or do not want to ) put in the energy and the smarts that the PLD market
requires. Here are the other big companies that have thrown in the towel:
Intel, TI, Motorola, AMD, National Semi, and now Philips. Except for Lucent, all
PLD suppliers are now "pure players", with nothing else to distract their
attention and no other product lines to subsidize or be subsidized by.

I know how to spell, even if the finger sometimes slips on the keyboard :-)

Peter Alfke


Ray Andraka

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Jul 1, 1999, 3:00:00 AM7/1/99
to
What about Atmel? They sure aren't paying the bills with AT40K sales.


> Here are the other big companies that have thrown in the towel:
> Intel, TI, Motorola, AMD, National Semi, and now Philips. Except for Lucent, all
> PLD suppliers are now "pure players", with nothing else to distract their
> attention and no other product lines to subsidize or be subsidized by.
>
> I know how to spell, even if the finger sometimes slips on the keyboard :-)
>
> Peter Alfke

--
-Ray Andraka, P.E.
President, the Andraka Consulting Group, Inc.
401/884-7930 Fax 401/884-7950
email rand...@ids.net
http://users.ids.net/~randraka

Mark Aaldering

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Jul 1, 1999, 3:00:00 AM7/1/99
to
On Thu, 01 Jul 1999 10:06:33 -0700, Aliens from the 3rd dimension made
Peter Alfke <pe...@xilinx.com> write:
>WildBeach wrote:
>
>>
>>
>> So, a PLD family designed by people who don't "understand programmable logic",
>> bought by people who were silly enough to purchase something designed by
>> (claimed) incompentents, and supported by people that don't know how to spell.
>>
>> Sorry, couldn't resist :-), you left yourself too open.

I've tried to stay away from commenting...but now I must utter a few
words. The CoolRunner family was designed by very competent folks who,
in fact, were there designing the very first PLDs (PLAs) way back when
Signetics was a brand (ie pre-MMI).

The primary issue that makes this a win for my former colleagues in
the CoolRunner group *and* a win for Xilinx is the relative marketing
and sales strengths of the two companies. Philips has a broad
portfolio of products that are both easier to sell to a mass market,
and far more difficult to sell to targeted accounts. Bottom Line:
CPLDs were given a time slice by the average Philips sales guy that
was no where near 100%. The CoolRunner group, in a company like
Xilinx, will have a sales force that is 100% dedicated to selling only
programmable logic, and will promote the product that makes sense to
each customer.

It is my understanding that the 3rd generation of the CoolRunner
family is going to market with Xilinx's support (the press release
went out last week) - so I fully believe that they want to make this
group a successful part of their portfolio. So I don't believe that
it's 'Goodbye CoolRunner'. Interestingly enough, XPLA3 features full
PLAs - I can't help to think that they've "Gone Back to the Future"
and I wish all of them great success in this endeavor.

- Mark Aaldering

(I pitched the original business plan to the CEO of Philips
Semiconductors. However I speak only for myself, and none of the above
statements are (or should be construed to be) statements of my
employer.)
Mark Aaldering
Mark.Aa...@ieee.org


Steven Casselman

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Jul 2, 1999, 3:00:00 AM7/2/99
to

WildBeach wrote:

> >Just the oppopsite:
> >Welcome Coolrunner, now you will be supported by a company that understands
> >Programmable Logic.
> >
> >Peter Alfke
> >
>

> So, a PLD family designed by people who don't "understand programmable logic",
> bought by people who were silly enough to purchase something designed by
> (claimed) incompentents, and supported by people that don't know how to spell.
>
> Sorry, couldn't resist :-), you left yourself too open.

I think Peter met to say

"Welcome Coolrunner, now you will be supported by a company that understands

the Programmable Logic market."

The PLD/FPGA market is wild. Prices are droping FAEs are
workin their butts off in the field. If a company can not work the
market and infiltrate the field it does not matter how good the
devices are that engineers design.

--
Steve Casselman, President
Virtual Computer Corporation
http://www.vcc.com

Richard Dungan

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Jul 2, 1999, 3:00:00 AM7/2/99
to
Brian Boorman <XZY.bb...@harris.com> wrote:

>Dear Valued CoolRunner Customer,
>
>We are pleased to inform you of a change in ownership of the CoolRunner
>product
>family. Philips Semiconductors has elected to sell its CoolRunner
>Programmable
>Logic business to Xilinx Inc.

[snip]

I think this is good news.

Philips, sadly, is characterized by excellent R&D but IMHO a sales and support
organization of mind-numbing incompetence. Xilinx cannot fail but to improve on
this.

Richard

------------Richard Dungan-------------
Radix Electronic Designs, Orpington, UK
Spamtrapped: Remove the XY
---------------------------------------

Peter Alfke

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Jul 2, 1999, 3:00:00 AM7/2/99
to Ray Andraka

Ray Andraka wrote:

> What about Atmel? They sure aren't paying the bills with AT40K sales.
>

I forgot them completely, sorry.
So, Lucent and Atmel are now the only remaining companies that handle their PLD
business as a sideline, deriving most of their revenues from other product lines. All
other PLD companies are "pure players".

Peter Alfke

Stuart Clubb

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Jul 3, 1999, 3:00:00 AM7/3/99
to
On Fri, 02 Jul 1999 10:21:16 -0700, Peter Alfke <pe...@xilinx.com>
wrote:

>I forgot them completely, sorry.
>So, Lucent and Atmel are now the only remaining companies that handle their PLD
>business as a sideline, deriving most of their revenues from other product lines. All
>other PLD companies are "pure players".

Considering that Lucent Technologies had something like a $23 BILLION
revenue in 1997 (as I recall) it would be a little difficult for even
the combined revenue of Xilinx, Altera and everybody else in the
quaint little PLD industry to amount to anything more than a
"sideline" of that size of revenue!

However, as I'm sure Peter knows, the key in this game is MARGIN,
right? Most PLD "players" manage to scrape by on margins that silicon
foundries and vendors of standard products can only dream of.

Cheers
Stuart
For Email remove "NOSPAM" from the address

jim granville

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Jul 4, 1999, 3:00:00 AM7/4/99
to
Mark Aaldering wrote:
> It is my understanding that the 3rd generation of the CoolRunner
> family is going to market with Xilinx's support (the press release
> went out last week) - so I fully believe that they want to make this
> group a successful part of their portfolio. So I don't believe that
> it's 'Goodbye CoolRunner'. Interestingly enough, XPLA3 features full
> PLAs - I can't help to think that they've "Gone Back to the Future"
> and I wish all of them great success in this endeavor.
>
> - Mark Aaldering

Is this Full PLA's something new, or just a spin on the std XPLA,
that actually delivers less ?

The 'old' XPLA has 36 In -> 32 PLA, and also 16 x 5 Dedicated OR array.
Seems this progress trading from 112 wide OR, to 48 wide or, and the
only design
it opens is one needing more than 37, and less than 48 OR terms.
Conversely, any existing XPLA design with > 48 total OR terms ( average
3/cell )
will not fit in the new model ?

The plus side will be these new devices can be smaller/cheaper than the
older ones


> The first family member (part number PZX3256) is a 256-macrocell device and will be followed
> by 192, 128 and 64-macrocell devices. The XPLA3 architecture consists of multiple logic blocks
> interconnected by a single level ZIA (Zero power Interconnect Array). Each logic block contains
> a full 36 by 48 PLA, enabling the macrocell to use only the product terms it needs.
> The PZX3256 Samples of the 256 macrocell CPLDs will be available early
> Q4 '99. Production pricing for the 256 Macrocell PZX3256 in high-volume quantities is $7.90.


Does anyone have a number for the Sales of Coolrunner - one press
release
mentioned $10M - sounded low ?

jg.
--
======= Manufacturers of Design Tools for uC and PLD =====
* IceP2051 - Full Speed ICE, for 1K,2K,4K 20 Pin FLASH controllers
* OptoISP - Safe, fast In System Program of 89S, 90S, 17C devices
=> http://www.DesignTools.co.nz/winner51.htm for highlights


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