I found the problem of the Parhelia

[Chrono_Wanderer]

Agree with Kurt.

I don't think the banding has anything to do with how they made the chip, but definitely is a circuit design flaw

[Wombat]

Actually, a lot of the weight rests on UMC. Assuming that Matrox followed the design rules that UMC provided, then any bugs caused by EMI, power droop, et cetera, are UMC's fault.
This is only an ASIC, and there's a lot where Matrox's responsibilities end, and UMC's begins.

[CaineTanathos]

didn't vigilant once write that Matrox didn't have an ASIC programmer.

I tried to search it on the forum, but it seems that all vigilants topics are gone...

[Kurt]

Originally posted by Wombat
Actually, a lot of the weight rests on UMC. Assuming that Matrox followed the design rules that UMC provided, then any bugs caused by EMI, power droop, et cetera, are UMC's fault.
This is only an ASIC, and there's a lot where Matrox's responsibilities end, and UMC's begins.

If M scrupulously followed UMC design rules, shouldn't they _reject_ all the defective chips after testing on the prod line? It's UMC testing UMC then. If chips go through then it would mean they past the "ASIC" tests but are basically borked at _design_ stage, hence Matrox's fault.

HAIG? Comment?

[Haig]

I'm just tech supp I wouldn't know what goes on in the asic testing procedure and who is supposed to do what.

[CaineTanathos]

But you are the guy that must solve all the problems

[Haig]

That would make me the Pres

[Chrono_Wanderer]

Okay here we go...

See invisible text

<HAIG FOR PREZ!!!>

[ElDonAntonio]

Originally posted by CaineTanathos
didn't vigilant once write that Matrox didn't have an ASIC programmer.

Come on, this is total nonsense. What the heck is an "ASIC programmer" anyways, I think you mean ASIC tester or ASIC designer.
It's true that competent ASIC guys are hard to find, but if Matrox didn't have any you wouldn't even see a toaster coming out of their labs.

[Wombat]

Originally posted by ElDonAntonio
Come on, this is total nonsense. What the heck is an "ASIC programmer" anyways, I think you mean ASIC tester or ASIC designer.
It's true that competent ASIC guys are hard to find, but if Matrox didn't have any you wouldn't even see a toaster coming out of their labs.

EDA, you'd better read up. "ASIC programmer" would be a perfectly valid job title for someone if Matrox were the kind of shop to just code up the Verilog and ship it off to some ASIC house.

And there are a <I>lot</I> of places that are "designing hardware" without knowing a thing about the inner workings of the chip.

[CaineTanathos]

Originally posted by ElDonAntonio
Come on, this is total nonsense. What the heck is an "ASIC programmer" anyways, I think you mean ASIC tester or ASIC designer.
It's true that competent ASIC guys are hard to find, but if Matrox didn't have any you wouldn't even see a toaster coming out of their labs.

I am not 100% it was a programmer, but I can't his threads anymore , so I can't look it up (like I already said) . But I think asic designer would be more or less the same. Unless what Wombat sais is right

[ElDonAntonio]

Originally posted by Wombat
EDA, you'd better read up. "ASIC programmer" would be a perfectly valid job title for someone if Matrox were the kind of shop to just code up the Verilog and ship it off to some ASIC house.

And there are a <I>lot</I> of places that are "designing hardware" without knowing a thing about the inner workings of the chip.

Well I never heard of anyone being referred as an "ASIC programmer", and I doubt you would be able to achieve such high-end circuitry by using only Verilog or VHDL or whatever. You end up with a nightmare of crosstalk and other physical problems. I know for a fact Matrox has ASIC guys (now much less than before, but still) and do extensive ASIC testing. But maybe those guys are actually responsible for Parhelia's problem you're all complaining about.

[Fluff]

Just blame sales and marketing pressure.

[Kurt]

Originally posted by Haig
I'm just tech supp I wouldn't know what goes on in the asic testing procedure and who is supposed to do what.

Aha! There you go! See! It's all your fault now!