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Samsung Electronics cultural issues causing disasters in foundry, LSI, DRAM

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Re: Samsung Electronics cultural issues causing disasters in foundry, LSI, DRAM

#171
post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Several (most?) brands do this. Do you know of a brand that definitely does not?

It's an almost universal practice now for consumer SSDs. Intel's consumer SSD product line was the last one where I was pretty sure they weren't doing this. Companies want to build product identities that can last for more than a year, but also want to be able to react to changes in the supply chain. Fixed BOM guarantees really aren't viable in this product segment, but you can often get such assurances in the enterp…

> Companies want to build product identities that can last for more than a year, but also want to be able to react to changes in the supply chain.

A fixed product identity for something that materially changes would best be described as a form of fraud, and it is unfortunate that sort of deception is business as usual in too many places.

Re: Samsung Electronics cultural issues causing disasters in foundry, LSI, DRAM

#172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Intel had toxic culture since Brian Krzanich took the lead in 2013, around the switch to 14nm. His mistakes weren't seen clearly until almost 2019, when it became obvious 10nm was a disaster, and 14nm++++++++ was their only workable product. We're still seeing it today as Intel has 250w TDP products competing with AMD 140w TDP products. Semiconductors is a space where mistakes take a while to bit you.

Semiconductors is a space where mistakes take a while to bit you. Although as we've seen with AMD, it is possible to come back from them. With the right course correction, Samsung is diversified enough to tough things out. Didn't they have a massive turnaround sometime in the 80's too?

AMD completely left the semiconductor manufacturing space and it took them like a decade to get their chip designs in a good place.

Re: Samsung Electronics cultural issues causing disasters in foundry, LSI, DRAM

#173
post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It has been clear to us for years that Samsung has baaad internal communication issues... It's clear that Samsung culture prevents people from admitting mistakes... Jesus H. Christ on a fucking hockey stick. I doubt I've ever read such a breathless hit piece with so many unsupported assertions summarily presented as fact. I worked for Samsung Semiconductor for ten years and left as a software engineering manager. N…

> Communication issues? Not admitting mistakes? Please... enlighten me. Tell me how we worked. I’m not sure if this is supposed to be a satire or not. The forcefull and quite frankly agressive way you denied ever having a problem with admiting mistakes makes me think that there might be something to this allegiation. Every company I ever worked with had occasional issues with communication, and even rarer issues with…

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Re: Samsung Electronics cultural issues causing disasters in foundry, LSI, DRAM

#174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I bought a Samsung Frame TV for my parents for a Christmas present. Dear lord what a mistake. So much software shit on that TV. After two hours of playing with it and Googling it, I still can't figure out how TO TURN IT OFF. WTF. Their customer support is worthless. I would really think twice before I bought another Samsung consumer product.

Yeah, I'd recommend you stick to things with simple mechanical buttons or something. When you press the power button and it goes to art mode (effectively a screensaver) instead of turning off, most people's next step would be to try holding the power button. Barring that, the manual clearly describes these two different operations if the power button.

As an experienced developer who has done way too much networking and home automation for my own good, it never would occur to me to hold the power button on a remote.

And now I just discovered my Apple TV actually has a control panel. You don't need to go two layers deep in Settings to put it to sleep. It never occurred to me to a long press on the home button would do anything. (Despite knowing long pressing on the menu taking you to the main menu.)

Re: Samsung Electronics cultural issues causing disasters in foundry, LSI, DRAM

#175

As a Samsung employee, I've been continuously being disappointed by the company culture. Recently, the company introduced a new policy that prohibits phone usage while walking inside the company building, due to "safety concerns". Samsung employed ~20 safety guards to supervise and monitor phone usage throughout the campus and if you're caught by them, you will be warned. If you are caughted twice, your team lead wil…

Drug dealers are equally strict about their employees getting high off the supply.

Why are you so desperate to use your phone?

Re: Samsung Electronics cultural issues causing disasters in foundry, LSI, DRAM

#176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've worked elsewhere. Samsung is in the bottom tier for every dimension that matters to quality (of life and of products).

As a data point: Sony, Panasonic, LG, etc… all try to have calibrated TVs that match the director’s intent. As in, the colours and contrast are defined in the standards, and they strive to show them accurately. They do cheat a little bit and have a “demo” mode the cranks up the saturation and brightness in store to compensate for the overhead lighting. Samsung takes that cheating to 11 and there is no way to turn it…

You can definitely turn off the "enhance" on the Samsungs...

Re: Samsung Electronics cultural issues causing disasters in foundry, LSI, DRAM

#177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Australian aborigines have over 50000 years of culture behind them. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Indigenous_Australi...

Very off-topic, but it's one of the most shameful episodes in Western, British, and Australian history. Almost 200 years of racism, persecution, forced assimilation, kidnapping children and putting them into religious institutions, and a lot more - and it was only in 2008 that the Australian govt cared to apologize. Incredible cultures, incredible wealth of lifestyles, ideas, beliefs - almost destroyed in the name of…

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Re: Samsung Electronics cultural issues causing disasters in foundry, LSI, DRAM

#178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Very off-topic, but it's one of the most shameful episodes in Western, British, and Australian history. Almost 200 years of racism, persecution, forced assimilation, kidnapping children and putting them into religious institutions, and a lot more - and it was only in 2008 that the Australian govt cared to apologize. Incredible cultures, incredible wealth of lifestyles, ideas, beliefs - almost destroyed in the name of…

Quoted post unavailable.

Dude, your argument is “yeah, but what if the Aboriginal Australians actually deserved to be ground into dust”?? The hell?

Re: Samsung Electronics cultural issues causing disasters in foundry, LSI, DRAM

#179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

but that doesn't directly reflect on 5000 years of western culture. There hasn't even been 5000 years of western culture...

There hasn’t been 5000 years of any culture tbh

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Egypt

Co-opted first by Alexander, then Caesar. Later Napoleon also dropped by ...

Seems to have slipped everybody's mind here, strangely.

Re: Samsung Electronics cultural issues causing disasters in foundry, LSI, DRAM

#180
post #2

Why do foundry insider articles always hurt my brain? It's like good writing and proximity to the industry are antithetical.

It's a fairly secretive/competitive industry, right? And with only a few major players, people who work in the industry generally don't want to burn bridges, at least if they ever plan on working in the industry again.

So nearly all of the "insider news" is going to be anonymous and read like rumor mill gossip. Especially in the English-speaking press, where there is an extra level of cultural and linguistic indirection.

That doesn't directly explain the poor quality of writing, but my guess is that the above factors dissuade a lot of talented journalists from even attempting to cover it.

(this is all speculation, of course)

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