With the 2010 Winter Olympics approaching, there has been some talk recently about those sports that Americans talk about once every 4 years. One of them is figure skating.

Now, I’m not much of a figure skating fan myself, but my mother-in-law is. And all this talk reminded me of the time we took her to an ice skating show at the LA Forum. It was not just any old show … it was Scott Hamilton’s return to figure skating after a fight with testicular cancer. Scott was as close to a superstar as there was in men’s figure skating, having invented the back-flip and won the Gold medal in the 1984 Olympics. So seeing him back on the ice was a feel good story.

The show featured a lot of other well known figure skaters, including Dorothy Hamill and Katerina Witt, but the climax was towards the end when Scott Hamilton took the ice. Cheers went through the crowd as he performed move after move, if not flawlessly, at least without major error. Then came the moment of truth. Scott would now perform his famous back-flip.

The lights dimmed. A lone spotlight. A drum roll. Scott Hamilton took a deep breath, began his run, turned backwards, took off ……. and fell

Obviously, it was disappointing. This show was being recorded and going to be shown a week later on Network TV, so unfortunately it would not be as great a moment as we’d anticipated.

When the show ended we started to gather our things when an announcement came over the PA that went something like this: “we’d like to do some extra takes of certain parts of the show. If you would like to stay, please come over to the west side of the forum and fill in the seats over there.”

What happened next I should have anticipated, but for some reason I was naive. The show producers proceeded to repeat parts of the performance where skaters had fallen or stumbled.  And of course, that included Scott Hamilton’s back-flip. Time after time the lights dimmed, the spotlight fell, and Scott skated and tried his back-flip. Finally, I think it was after 4 or 5 tries, Scott Hamilton nailed it and a roar went through the crowd.

I made a point of watching the performance when it aired on TV a week or so later. And sure enough, nobody fell or even slipped up. And of course, Scott Hamilton successfully executed his back-flip on his first try, to the cheers of a huge crowd.

Having been in the EDA business for many years, I know that a lot of EDA tool demos are a lot like Scott Hamilton’s return performance. If features don’t quite work, the demo avoids those features. Or if the feature is critical, then that is the one that gets fixed while other not-so-critical features may be left broken. It’s part of the smoke and mirrors that is the least well kept secret of EDA tool demos. The customer knows that the EDA company is avoiding the holes in its product.

But what if you don’t have big holes in your product? What if your tool really can nail that back-flip on the first pass? What if your tool really is a “game changer”? Won’t they believe you if you show them? After all, seeing is believing!

Unfortunately, customers have become so cynical and jaded about EDA tools and EDA salespeople that they hardly ever believe what they see anymore. I know. I’m also one of those customers. Read ESNUG or any one of the many EDA forums and you’ll know that I’m right.

But what if they could try the tool out themselves? No strings attached. That’s what we are trying to do with the Xuropa labs. To give your jaded, non-trusting, cynical customer a chance to try your fabulous tools himself.

“Seeing is believing” is no longer good enough. “Doing is believing” is the new reality.

If you’d like to see what a Xuropa Online Lab is like, you can try it out here. We’ve got some tools loaded and you can play with them as long as you like. No strings attached.

Oh, and to be fair to Scott Hamilton, here’s a video of him nailing that same back-flip just a few weeks ago. In this case, seeing is believing.

Posted under Xuropa, business, industry, marketing

Design and Verification Engineers Can Test-Drive More Verification Solutions Online

San Francisco, California – July 28, 2009 – Xuropa^SM Incorporated today announced that Cadence Design Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CDNS) has increased the number of products available within Xuropa Online Labs.

 

Users can run simulations and employ this verification IP on example circuits at their convenience from their desktop. With only a web browser, approved visitors to Xuropa Labs™ can now access the Cadence Incisive® verification IP components for the protocols listed below.

 

AMBA VIP with Compliance Management System (CMS)
AMBA AHB, AXI and APB UVCs

USB VIP with Compliance Management System (CMS)
USB 1.1 and 2.0 UVC

PCI Express VIP with Compliance Management System (CMS)
PCI Express 1.1 and 2.0 UVC

OCP VIP with Compliance Management System (CMS)
OCP 2.2 UVC

SATA VIP with Compliance Management System (CMS)
SATA I and II UVC

Ethernet VIP with Compliance Management System (CMS)
Ethernet 802.1 and 802.3 UVC

 

The service is free to Xuropa Community members and dramatically simplifies the process of evaluating EDA software products.  Users can begin to test drive applications in minutes vs. the days or weeks it used to take to get agreements signed, software downloaded, and keys installed.

 

The Xuropa Online Community presents networking and learning tools in a professional environment and is dedicated to electronic design. 

 

Lowering the Cost of Customer Engagement

 

“Xuropa Labs enable customers to move beyond the marketing collateral and actually test-drive the technology themselves – at their desktops, and at their convenience,” said Susan Peterson, Verification IP Marketing Director at Cadence.  “With no installation headaches to deal with, the evaluation process and customer training becomes more efficient and effective for us and our customers.”

 

Face-to-face meetings are always going to be important, but as design teams are now global, companies need cost effective alternatives to reduce the number of flights while accelerating the engagement process.

 

“Xuropa has reinvented the front end of the customer engagement process with a web platform that lowers the cost of sales, training and support.”  Xuropa CEO and founder James Colgan explained. “Xuropa Labs provide engineers on-demand hands-on access to technology to learn about it before a purchase is made.”

 

Availability

Xuropa Online Labs featuring Cadence Incisive Verification IP Products are  accessible at no cost to authorized Xuropa members.  Go to www.xuropa.com and sign-in for access.  For information about how to create your own Online Lab, or any of the other Xuropa community products, please contact Xuropa at the address below.

 

 

About Xuropa Incorporated

Xuropa^SM Incorporated was founded by veterans from the internet, IT, and electronics industries.  With the goal of reinventing business processes to lower sales costs and increase revenues for software companies, a Xuropa Lab™  bridges the gap between traditional client-installed and Software-as-a-Service business and distribution models.  Xuropa’s current area of focus is the electronic design industry. http://www.xuropa.com/

 

Contact:

sales@xuropa.com

+1 (415) 727-5741

 

 

Posted under News

This day has been a long time coming - we can now officially announce that the Cadence MIPI Verification IP Online Labs are up and running!  This is a real vote of confidence in the platform from Cadence, and we’re looking forward to announcing more activity in the coming weeks.

Below is the full press release.  (Yes, the press release is trailing reality…but that’s the web for you.)

Online Community Lowers Cost of Sales, Enables Effective Leverage of Field Resources Globally

San Francisco, California – July 2, 2009 – Xuropa^SM Incorporated today announced the opening of the first Xuropa Online Lab featuring technology from Cadence Design Systems (NASDAQ:CDNS).

With only a web browser, approved visitors to Xuropa Online Labs can access the Cadence Incisive® MIPI verification IP Components. Users can run simulations, employing them on example circuits at their convenience.

The service is free to Xuropa Community members and dramatically simplifies the process of evaluating EDA software products. Users can begin to test drive applications in minutes vs. the days or weeks it used to take to get agreements signed, software downloaded, and keys installed.

The Xuropa Online Community presents networking and learning tools in a professional environment and is dedicated to electronic design.

Addressing a Dynamic and Global Marketplace

“The better educated customers are about Cadence products the more likely they are to call us. Having our technology available through Xuropa Online Labs enables customers to move beyond the datasheet to view presentations and videos, and actually use the technology themselves – at their desktops, and at their convenience,” added Susan Peterson, Verification IP Marketing Director at Cadence. “With no installation headaches to deal with, the evaluation process becomes more efficient and effective for us and our customers.”

Physical trade shows and conferences present engineers with the opportunity to try out new technologies and discuss them with experts. The Xuropa community complements these events by providing the tools and the experts online all year round, accessible from all over the world.

“Generic online communities are generally consumer-centric and electronic design companies tend to get lost in the noise,” Xuropa CEO and founder James Colgan explained. “The electronics industry focus of Xuropa brings resonance and helps electronic design companies connect with their customers. The Xuropa Online Lab, featuring the Cadence VIP, exemplifies our goal – to economically bring technology to engineers so they can make better purchase decisions faster.”

Availability

Xuropa Online Labs featuring Cadence Incisive MIPI verification IP are accessible at no cost to authorized Xuropa members. Go to www.xuropa.com and sign-in for access – Cadence MIPI CSI VIP Online Lab or Cadence MIPI DSI VIP Online Lab. For information about how to create your own Online Lab, or any of the other Xuropa community products, please contact Xuropa at the address below.

About Xuropa Incorporated

Xuropa^SM Incorporated was founded in 2007 by veterans from the internet, IT, and electronics industries. With the goal of economically and effectively bringing together the constituents of different industry verticals to accelerate business processes, Xuropa offers a unique environment that integrates professional networking, collaboration, marketing, and product evaluation tools. Xuropa’s current area of focus is the electronic design industry. http://www.xuropa.com/

Posted under News, Xuropa, business, industry

We’ve just completed a new video providing a summary of some of the features of the Xuropa Online Electronic Design Community.  The biggest challenge was keeping the video short and choosing which features to highlight. 

The only way to really understand exactly what the Xuropa Community is about and what it can do for you is to register and sign-in.  But for those that would like to “look before they leap” - enjoy:

 

Here’s the transcript:

“Unlike any other online community, the Xuropa community is dedicated to the entire electronic design industry.  It has been designed and built for electronic design professionals by electronic design professionals.

Among the many tools Within this select community you can:

1. Use actual electronic design software to learn new skills or consider new tool acquisitions

2. View and navigate the industry and your network as a visual map

3. See what news is hot to read through a peer voting tool

4. Gain recognition for your experience and expertise within the industry.

Within a Xuropa Online Lab you gain access to actual electronic design tools for you to use diretly via your web browser.  There are no downloads, no installations and no configuration necessary.  Within an Online Lab, in this case it is the Cadence MIPI Verification Lab, you have the tool and all of the related documentation at your fingertips.  Use this area to learn about a new protocol, a new tool and verification methodology.  You can also use this environment to evaluate the products in your consideration for licensing them from the vendor.  Again, without the need to install anythng on your local workstation.

We put you at the center of the electronic design industry.  Based upon your professional profile, we map all of the electronic design professionals within the community.  This way you can see those people with similar backgrounds who might be interesting to network with.  You can also begin to understand the portability of your skills and specializations into different fields and domains.

To do this we go further than any other online networking tool.  Within your Xuropa Professional Profile you add Specializations, such as RTL Design Verification or System Level Architect.  You can also add specific skills, such as protocols, software languages or verification methodologies.

News articles are brought in from all over the web and ranked by the number of views and the number of votes each has received.  We also categorize each article into different fields so you can focus on the important news of the day.  You can also browse industry news feeds that you select in your customized feed view.

In today’s economic environment it is crucial that you’re able to differentiate yourself and be recognized for your expertise.  Within Xuropa you can do this by writing reviews of products and technology you have used or developed.  These are linked to your Professional Profile.  If you don’t have time to write a review you can quickly share your experience by rating products and technology

These is just a short summary of the types of tools available to you within the Xuropa Online Community.

Click here to register for the Xuropa Online Electronic Design Community.

Posted under Features, Xuropa

The realities of the new economy are upon us.  Finance pundits are no longer debating if the “R word” is an appropriate descriptor, but when it actually started.

In bringing the electronic design industry together, the Xuropa Platform was envisioned to address a number of issues.  The most timely one is costs.  How do you reduce costs using Xuropa?

Reduce Travel Budgets: Use Xuropa Online Labs

Electronic design tools are extremely complex and sophisticated pieces of software.  Educating potential users of your tools can take time and several costly trips (long gone are the days when all of your users were in Silicon Valley).  The process looks something like this:

1. Introductory presentation
2. In-depth technical presentation
3. Demonstration
4. Demonstration to a larger team
5. Training
6. Installation and evaluation
7. Probably more training to a larger team

Sometimes these steps iterate through the same design team.  Alternatively the wider audience to be brought in is at a different location requiring a different on-site visit.

To keep things simple, let’s say everything went smoothly and only 4 different visits were needed.  There are two employees (applications engineer and a business person at minimum) over 4 trips lasting five nights each.  (You’d want to make it a week long trip and meet with other potential users.)  We’ll use flights from San Francisco to Frankfurt as representative and not include any intra-European flights to keep it simple.

Looking at an economy class trip (I used Kayak and took almost the cheapest of everything) including hotel room, flights, rental car, minimum per diem and the cost of your two employees’ time.  The cost to the company is $32,815.  (Nearly a third of this cost is direct expenses, the rest is hidden in salary broken down to an hourly rate.  There were no executives on this trip by the way.)

These costs quickly get out of control once we consider how disaggregated our industry now is.  For example, a single SoC design team can have locations on three different continents and all need to be brought into the decision making process and be trained.

Hidden Costs and Challenges

Unfortunately it’s not always even this simple though.  There’s the opportunity cost of these trips.  Choosing between which users to see and also choosing between the support of existing users and bringing in new ones.  These are tough decisions, especially for small to medium-sized companies.  Unfortunately, the impacts of these decisions are not seen until well after the fact.

The Solution: Xuropa Online Labs

At some point your team will get on a plane and meet with users.  It has to happen.  However, the objectives of the Xuropa Online Labs are to ensure the following:

• Only absolutely necessary trips are made and you have data to decide which
• Your users are as educated as possible before you step on a plane
• Your team is focused on the right users at the right time
• Your team is leveraged across multiple teams from their desk - not spending most of their productive time in the air or in hotel rooms

How to Use Xuropa Online Labs

A Xuropa Online Lab provides an interactive environment where users and applications engineers can collaborate and communicate to accelerate the early stages of the education process.

• Online presentations, flash demonstrations, videos and technical collateral
• Online interactive demonstration
• Online interactive training
• Online self-driven training
• Online self-driven pre-evaluation
• On-site installation and training for evaluation

All of the online education work is using your tool in a secure environment.  The user does not make any downloads, there’s no configuration and no setup required.  It’s ready to go when they are.

Crucially, a key aspect of the process is to provide all of this within the same controlled and secure environment that is easily managed and maintained.

Conclusion

The Xuropa Online Lab enables your application engineering team to support and educate in parallel multiple new prospective users independent of geography or time zone.

A key aspect of the process is the ability of new users to learn about your technology on their own time independent of your applications engineers.

And crucially, this is how a Xuropa Online Lab can reduce those 4 trips down to one very productive one with a high probability of success.  Xuropa saves you money and saves you time.

Posted under Features, business

As we traverse the web, the number of times we have to input a user-name and password is getting annoying.  We agree.

For this and many other reasons, we developed the Xuropa Platform from scratch.  Well, almost…we did build upon the LAMP infrastructure (Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP), but all of the features and functions that you use within the environment are developed internally.

This departure from the fashionable “throw-it-together and throw-it-out-there” Web 2.0 strategy enabled us to provide internal Single-Sign-on (SSO) capability.  For example, you can go from browsing the member community to checking out a development tool in an Online Lab seamlessly.  If we’d thrown together the platform using a collection of templates and “frameworks” this would not have been possible.

So, we’ve solved this issue.  However there’s a bigger problem out there - Cross-Platform SSO.

There are a few projects underway to resolve this, and the better known one is OpenID. As they state, “OpenID is an open, decentralized, free framework for user-centric digital identity.”

We’re investigating how to build this into the Xuropa Platform.  Interestingly enough though, some of the major platforms aren’t on-board with this yet.  LinkedIn and Facebook being two of them.  Anyway, we’ll get there and I’ll let you know when it’s up and running.

In the meantime, here are some features that we put into the Xuropa Platform to make your time on the web more efficient:

• Aggregation of nearly 50 news & blog feeds from all over the electronic design industry
• Import of LinkedIn profiles
• Import of LinkedIn contacts
• Import of contacts via csv file
• Company directory “wiki-lite”
• Product directory “wiki-lite”

Thanks to Jonathan David for raising this as an important topic.

Posted under Features, Xuropa