> I laughed as I read the pathetic debut of OneSpin Solutions GmbH.  From
> the story, OneSpin is a bunch of Munich engineers from Infineon and
> Siemens who made their first product (which appears to be yet another
> property checker) and "sold" it (surprise! -- who would have guessed?)
> back to their old friends at Infineon and Siemens.
>
> What's funny here is that the OneSpin people now have the balls to claim
> in this story that "our technology has been field-proven" all because
> their old work buddies say it is.
>
> This is like my mom saying that *I'm* cute and that "any girl out there
> would be very lucky to be with me" because I'm a "good catch"!
>
>     - from http://www.deepchip.com/wiretap/060508.html


I received two emails from two pissed off Infineon engineers spanking me for
my criticism of the OneSpin Solutions GmbH debut.  The first engineer:

  "I am an Infineon engineer and I am working since 9 years with the
   solutions from OneSpin.  These formal checkers are used for every
   module and every product within Infineon and this is really a huge
   amount of Verilog and VHDL code.

   As far as I know they are also used within Siemens (and this is
   not the same company anymore).

   So I really have no idea why your comment is that negative on
   OneSpin products!!!

   I think you simply have no idea what you are talking about."

And then the second engineer:

  "I laughed this morning when I read your skeptical speculation about
   OneSpin Solutions.  Was there an inference there that you are, in
   fact, not a very good catch?  What I didn't find nearly as funny
   though were the following

    1. Your use of the word 'pathetic'.  Not very analytical I think.
    2. Your reference to a 'bunch of Munich engineers' - surely
       'group of Munich engineers' would be a better way to phrase it?
    3. Your apparent aspersion that their 'old work buddies' would not
       be both honest and capable enough to give an objective opinion
       of their tool.  This does not match my experience of Infineon
       and Siemens engineers, whether or not they work in Munich.

   In fact it was your article that seemed to me to lack any objectivity.
   Your mom doesn't work for a rival company does she?"

I do hope they're not seeing my criticism as being anti-Infineon, because
it's not meant that way.  In my experience, I've found that so far all the
Infineon engineers I've ever interacted with to be damn smart people.  I
wouldn't hesitate one bit to hire them into any engineering project I was
staffing.  That being said, I must still stand by my original words.  Any
endorsement of Infineon-developed tools by Infineon engineers isn't kosher
in my book.  It's too much like Bill Gates saying Windows is the world's
best OS.  Gates could be right, or he could be wrong, but either way he's
simply not an objective bystander in such a discussion.  :)