Beer and Processors at DAC

I heartily agree with Dave J. At Tensilica, the company of configurable and extensible processors, we have a full all-American microbrewery with an international brew-crew. GPs, DSPs, Media Processors, you name it, we'll bring it to your table.

There are many fine *American* craft beers, too. Just sayin'.

Steve Cox: I found John Googenough's reaction to seeing Gert compare the ARM architecture to Budweiser beer quite understandable. It was a thinly veiled attempt to discredit a competitor's product in the name of good marketing fun and he reacted accordingly. Gert could have chosen any brand of beer for the standard architecture example. In ARM's case, he might have chosen a UK brand, perhaps Bass Pale Ale, and be more on target. Instead, Gert decided to send a not-too-subtle message by picking a mass-market beer that's not viewed as favorably by "serious" beer drinkers. Mass-market certainly describes ARM, which owns the volume title by virtue of being the processor core of choice for cell phones. However, the comparison with Budweiser is little more than FUDslinging. I skipped discussing this aspect of Gert's talk in my original blog post. I wanted to let it slide. But you couldn't resist rubbing it in. So be it.

Hi Steve. I attended the panel as well. What I found most interesting was John Goodenough's (ARM) reaction to being compared to the "King of Beers". ARM seems quite prominent in the marketplace to me! In his reaction, John commented that he would prefer that ARM was compared to a craft beer. But, that's just the point of ASIPs. While any individual craft beer likely appeals to only a small audience (think how a low-power audio ASIP would certainly not appeal to someone trying to perform video decoding), a broadly-proliferated product must trade off qualities that might be preferred by a small-subsection of the total market in order to generate mass-market appeal. Of course such products will have long-standing appeal in the market (nearly every bar serves Bud), yet their tap-handle is right next to a collection of taps for craft brews - provided for those with more definitive taste (or requirements). (Lastly, don't the Belgians own Budweiser now? hah! 8^)

I like the analogy, even though I don't drink. :)

Steve, thanks for coming to the panel - appreciated you being there and asking a question. Re. Gert's presentation and analogy, it is interesting that he did not cover configurable, extensible processors, which of course are full ASIPs and thus offer all the varieties and flavours of his third category. Sometimes people confuse configurable and configurable, extensible, the latter being a much wider category since you can add instruction extensions to make a very application oriented processor (the essence of an ASIP). As you point out, Gert's analogies jumped the tracks a bit at that point. But the virtual beer no doubt tasted virtually good!