New forum launches Monday for Parallax Semiconductor
Ken Gracey
Posts: 7,407
New Forum on Monday!
Monday will be a big day for Parallax and our customers. We are launching Parallax Semiconductor, a division of Parallax. I'm making sure that our forum members and moderators have advance notice about a new forum we are adding named "Parallax Semiconductor - Commercial Product Development". We are creating this forum for three purposes:
(a) to provide a place for product developers to ask questions specific to their needs;
(b) so Parallax Semiconductor Field Application Engineers (FAEs) will have a consolidated location to answer questions; and
(c) to keep forum members aware of technical issues and business pertaining to Parallax Semiconductor.
We invite all of you participate in this forum. Your knowledge of Propeller and related interests are invaluable for all customers, and it validates our efforts to get the straight story from users. Nobody welcomes a new users as well as you do, too.
Whether to setup another forum for Parallax Semiconductor was a topic of discussion in Parallax. We didn't want to splinter the forums by having this new forum run outside of the main forums. And many product developers are right here already. We also didn't want dilution or a reduction of forum activity, but we felt it was important to have a Propeller forum for commercial product developers.
More about Parallax Semiconductor
At first look Parallax Semiconductor will appear as just a new web site, but the changes behind the scenes are substantial. From infrastructure to human resources, a few examples include: dedicating five FAEs exclusively to our customers and their needs; setting up customer resource management software for tracking opportunities; installing support portal software; training the staff for our new roles; documenting and changing processes relating to chip testing and handling; AppNote production and editing processes; creation of the Gold Standard object program; contracting a firm to assist R&D with Prop 2 die synthesis so we can avoid lengthy schematic lead times; and even new hardware development. The transformation took a year from the minute we started but we're on schedule!
Even if you're not designing a product around the Propeller, everything we do will benefit hobbyists, educators and innovators who use only six chips a year. The AppNotes and code are useful for all projects. And a new piece of hardware is very attractively-priced, being either free or $20. Documentation and software improvements now have a way of being prioritized and tracked, too.
Of course, I'm enthusiastic about this change but you shall be the judge. Our efforts will be tuned based on the feedback loop (a business PID loop). And we must hear the truth from you. You'll even be able to comment on individual web pages - we attempted to take an approach which shows our best traits but isn't stuffy or too corporate.
Thank you,
Ken Gracey
Monday will be a big day for Parallax and our customers. We are launching Parallax Semiconductor, a division of Parallax. I'm making sure that our forum members and moderators have advance notice about a new forum we are adding named "Parallax Semiconductor - Commercial Product Development". We are creating this forum for three purposes:
(a) to provide a place for product developers to ask questions specific to their needs;
(b) so Parallax Semiconductor Field Application Engineers (FAEs) will have a consolidated location to answer questions; and
(c) to keep forum members aware of technical issues and business pertaining to Parallax Semiconductor.
We invite all of you participate in this forum. Your knowledge of Propeller and related interests are invaluable for all customers, and it validates our efforts to get the straight story from users. Nobody welcomes a new users as well as you do, too.
Whether to setup another forum for Parallax Semiconductor was a topic of discussion in Parallax. We didn't want to splinter the forums by having this new forum run outside of the main forums. And many product developers are right here already. We also didn't want dilution or a reduction of forum activity, but we felt it was important to have a Propeller forum for commercial product developers.
More about Parallax Semiconductor
At first look Parallax Semiconductor will appear as just a new web site, but the changes behind the scenes are substantial. From infrastructure to human resources, a few examples include: dedicating five FAEs exclusively to our customers and their needs; setting up customer resource management software for tracking opportunities; installing support portal software; training the staff for our new roles; documenting and changing processes relating to chip testing and handling; AppNote production and editing processes; creation of the Gold Standard object program; contracting a firm to assist R&D with Prop 2 die synthesis so we can avoid lengthy schematic lead times; and even new hardware development. The transformation took a year from the minute we started but we're on schedule!
Even if you're not designing a product around the Propeller, everything we do will benefit hobbyists, educators and innovators who use only six chips a year. The AppNotes and code are useful for all projects. And a new piece of hardware is very attractively-priced, being either free or $20. Documentation and software improvements now have a way of being prioritized and tracked, too.
Of course, I'm enthusiastic about this change but you shall be the judge. Our efforts will be tuned based on the feedback loop (a business PID loop). And we must hear the truth from you. You'll even be able to comment on individual web pages - we attempted to take an approach which shows our best traits but isn't stuffy or too corporate.
Thank you,
Ken Gracey
Comments
Sounds like a good plan for this growing company.
Looking forward to the new forum.
Those people aren't managers, by the way. But I have to look at marketing and how our customers see it.
I see the Propeller as my escape hatch from the Microsoft treadmill. I just rant to the outskirts of Tuscaloosa today to restore a critical computer whose hard drive decided the power surge from the tornado thing was EOM. Got that done, but it involved a WinXP to Win7 conversion since you can't get a WinXP machine now on 1 day notice and there were some scary moments there. I don't like things like that and I'd rather my UI be through a keyboard and VGA monitor or, if more multistuff is needed, through a web browser. Put my code on something that has no moving parts and where I own every line so I can make it work when it breaks. That's the way it was in 1985 and, when your business is as critical as mine, that's the way it should still be.
Paul
This brings up an idea: have you ever heard of the viable system model?
How about using management structures that have a development-time of 2 Billion years and that has evolovled in millions of billion tests?
Too big numbers? No! Livings organisms and their communities have some things in common that are all the same across all creatures and ecosystems:
The viable system model.
http://www.moderntimesworkplace.com/good_reading/GRRespSelf/TheViableSystemModel.pdf
http://www.kybernetik.ch/en/fs_methmod3.html
I guess parallax is open minded enough to think about new ideas about management and how to adopt them to their needs.
(Now that I have written this I'm wondering me about myself: "Stefan why haven't you told them about this as soon as you discovered parallax is different from all other companies?")
Whenever Parallax should be in front of a big problem you should consider to do a "syntegration".
http://www.malik-management.com/en/malik-for-organisations/solutions-and-methods/malik-supersyntegration/success-stories
to solve the problem
In my immodest opinion a syntegration is a problem-solver-tool that is 15 years ahead of all the rest of problem-solving methods.
Anyway I'm curious about the new website and the new forum.
best regards
Stefan
I love the eval board. It's a lean design. Very accessible.
Here's to stage two of getting the propeller some greater exposure.
I am looking forward to Parallax Semiconductor
(Not that there is anything wrong with Parallax!)
You forgot to mention cutting Daniel's hair.
http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php?131189-4_28_11-Meetup-Files-Reference
-Phil
More power to your cogs!
Ross.
Regards,
Coley
Congratulations on getting to enjoy the fruits of your hard work! I'm looking forward to Monday Morning.
Tony
Are you teasing us Ken?
Great to hear that Parallax is confident enough - as it should be - to launch this new division. I'm sure it'll be successful.
Jim
best regards
Stefan
I just made my first post over there.
The site looks nice.
The new site looks great. I did see something though that I thought I would ask about in "Our Multicore Concept," under the sub-heading "Progression Path"
Am I reading that right that GCC will be the compiler for the Propeller 2, or is this just the IDE being developed in GCC? I didn't see any details on that specifically in the notes.