Xilinx sends lawyers after an engineer teaching FPGA programming

[@RobertFeranec]

Update: First, thank you! Without your comments and help with sharing this video, I am sure Xilinx would not react. Xilinx will not publicly comment on what exactly happened. This is the official Xilinx response: Dear Mr. Feranec: We greatly value the developer and engineering communities who use Xilinx tools to enable the technology of today and tomorrow - and those who educate them. We would like to apologize for the manner in which your situation was handled. It has brought to light several gaps in our content and internal processes, including a lack of guidance concerning the use of Xilinx’s intellectual property and the difficulty in receiving a response from Xilinx for clarity. Please be assured that we are actively reviewing and updating our processes to avoid this from happening again. That said, we are responding by working on a set of guidelines that will address the use of Xilinx’s intellectual property while at the same time, provide clarity to content creators on acceptable usage; once finalized, we will provide written guidance at www.xilinx.com/about/legal.html. Second, we will ensure that situations such as this are addressed with a friendly email from a Xilinx employee instead of a letter from a law firm. In the meantime, please know that we are supportive of the spirit of educators, and would not want to do anything that would stand in the way of learning about our technology. Again, we are very sorry that this unfolded in this way and are committed to doing better.

[@asmi06]

Thanks for the update, and I'm glad that the issue seems resolved. BTW - since you're talking to them, you can ask them regarding using their schematics and board files in your videos, that we talked about in a recent past.

[@RobertFeranec]

@@asmi06 after this is resolved, I can try to ask. But see, this current situation is exactly why I was careful when we talked about the video where I would be commenting on their PCB layout - you never know how big budget they have for lawyers.

[@asmi06]

@@RobertFeranec I just never expected this situation to occur in the first place given all support they provide for hobbyists. For once, they are the only big semiconductor company that actually bothered to respond to enquiries from an ordinary hobbyist like me, and were genuinely helpful at that. And after all is said and done, it seems like this situation was only random fluke. But in a way I am glad this happened because now content creators are going to have clear guidelines for the use of their IP, and no longer will they have to hope that it's alright.

[@RobertFeranec]

@@asmi06 I believe, the situation is more complex than it may look. I like how Dave explained it on his forum: "It is clear they are not protecting their actual trademark here, the official intent is to ensure that people don't think that any unathorised online courses are confused with official Xilinx approved courses. The real reason is undoubtedly that they don't like the unofficial courses, and the logo trademark is an easy way to screw with the little providers. .... I'd bet that Xilinx hope the small "unofficial" providers get in a huff and simply remove all their material and never do it again. That was the point engaging the lawyer." www.eevblog.com/forum/chat/xilinx-sends-lawyers-after-online-educators/msg2109523/#msg2109523

[@AnttiBrain]

​@@RobertFeranec Robert, I disagree. Xilinx did not send you C&D, it did come from lawyers directly (there was no intent from Xilinx) and there is no real reason behind it. Xilinx has no intention to huff small guys away - they actually are interested to have better relation to the community and "small guy" but they do not know how to improve those relations. They have tried, and they are ready to try again. But they do not know how. If you want to talk to someone at Xilinx, try get meeting with their CTO. Xilinx needs more learning material, and the courses currently offered by official partners are not what they need, its not the price, its the content.

[@UpcycleElectronics]

I'm playing with Altera/Intel, and I have been looking into Lattice and Xilinx. Thanks for helping me make an easy decision. The amateur, everyday hobbyist is likely to be the next generation electrical engineer. Limiting our resources and exposure to a product is counterproductive. Actions such as this means I will intentionally avoid the company in the future. When I'm in a position to make a choice between two similar products, I will remember this. It will influence my choices for years to come. Perhaps I'm just another irrelevant hobbyist. Perhaps I'll be the guy that makes the arguement that causes Xilinx to lose out on that big contract in 5-10 years. Who knows? -Jake

[@RobertFeranec]

Same for me. I have never really had any special reason to prefer one of these companies, now it is clear - I am just going to use Altera / Intel.

[@johnyang799]

I have used xilinx in university it's slow buggy and unstable. It the worst platform I've ever used. I haven't used other FPGA platforms but let me put it this way. If all fpga platforms are like xilinx I won't do fpga programming.

[@marcan42]

Try Lattice! Their FPGAs are becoming supported by open source tools, which have quite a few advantages over the vendor tools for these FPGAs (faster, runs anywhere, better support for modern build systems, etc). In particular the iCE40 family is well supported and the ECP5 is on the way.

[@UpcycleElectronics]

@@marcan42 Yup. The Current Source did a great tutorial recently on a crowd sourced iCE40 based board. I'm working with older CPLD's first like the EPM240, but after that I'll probably move on to the iCE40 as an FPGA in a QFN is still manageable without having to mess with the dark lord, Darth BGA. Those things are scary. -Jake

[@punpck]

Normally, I use Altera/Intel but for my current project ARM is offering the Cortex M1 IP cost-free for Xilinx FPGAs ... So I'm doing the project with Xilinx and I have to admit, I like the new Vivado. But after this, I'll reconsider for the next projects.

[@whatdamath]

this is a typical scare tactics that some companies use to try to make you back down. Usually it's not even an actual lawyer or a real person. You are in your right to use any logo in any video for educational purposes - this is in KZbin policies and is the essence of fair use policy. tell them nicely to bugger off and write an email replying "this is a lawyer of mr Feranec, we looked into your concerns and determined we do not violate any policies of the platform. Have a good day"

[@bhuvaneshs.k638]

Hello is this The Anton..... !!! Hello wonderful person. I'm a big fan of ur channel. Do you use FPGA Programming, HDL ??

[@TymexComputing]

On the other hand :) closed infrastructure and EDA helped fpga companies to keep up their market share and no competition :) - The PalCE and Gal manufacturers lost because the external application development and availability caused that the manufacturers of PAL needed to adapt to the EDA - not the other way around. The same is with Nvidia - own proprietary drivers and NO support :) - btw - recently i learned there is a dedicated Alveo V70 from X-illinois-X that competes with nvidia GPU inference dominion - apart Esperanto Risc-V module board :)

[@MickMake]

There's plenty of other FPGA fish in the sea. Move over to another FPGA company. They will get the message soon enough.

[@CoolKoon]

Not that plenty I'm afraid. And that's the thing.

[@RipCityBassWorks]

What? There is Intel or Xilinx unless I am missing something...

[@666aron]

@@lex4o I was a blind fan of Xilinx, but Microsemi, and Lattice were more friendly, their programmers are more accessible, and the chips are more affordable. I for one am changing every FPGA related lecture/lab in my courses and online tutorials.

[@yottaforce]

@@lex4o I've used Lattice and I'll never do that again.

[@aneeshprasobhan]

@@yottaforce what was the problem with Lattice ? and what do you recommend as an alternative ?

[@ekarter1981]

That awkward moment when lawyers run company instead of engineers:(

[@Amit-sp4qm]

Unfortunately it's the case with everything, lawyers .. finance people .. who seem to create money out of nothing .. they run the system ..

[@ekarter1981]

@@Amit-sp4qm Yeah, you're right.

[@tHaH4x0r]

"People are giving us free advertising!? Sue them!" How is it bad in any way shape or form to use their logo, even next to an Altera logo. Everyone knows they are competitors. At the very least, I will now have less of an incentive to use their products instead of Altera or Lattice (currently my favorite). The only thing they are doing is alienating designers and possible customers.

[@theminertom11551]

Robert, thank you for providing this video. I have great respect for your work. A little history about Xilinx: Xilinx's own attitude towards its customers was the reason why Altera could start up. Back in the late 80's and early 90's, Xilinx management had the attitude "we are a chip company not a software company". I believe that was an exact quote from the then ceo (it was a long time ago). It became incredibly hard to program Xilinx FPGAs and one had to purchase third party software in order to use their devices. I remember having to purchase not one but two software packages to program Xilinx devices. When Altera came along, their attitude was to provide good software for programming and do it basically free (only some advanced devices required some kind of license). So you see, Xilinx was not usually a company that thought strategically about providing service to customers. Now, it has a few uppity lawyers trying to make a name for themselves and move up the management chain. They are probably getting "taken out to the woodshed" as I write this.

[@RobertFeranec]

Thank you Tom

[@PCSolutions94]

This is absurd. I am a senior EE student, and the amount of information I have learned from content creators such as Robert, Dave, and many others has been invaluable to my education. Their business does not benefit from these actions and it only hurts the future EE's and hobbyists looking to learn something new or improve their skills. Keep doing what you're doing, Robert. The community has your back!

[@Fantasma25]

I cannot believe they don't understand that many times engineers don't pick "The best part for the job" (especially when it's about programmable devices like MCUs and FPGAs), but rather they pick the part that they know how to use! Stupid lawyers.

[@PrimeToolbox]

Well said. They take the status quo bias, if they know how to use, they automatically think on implement it. But if they don't, they don't even think about it. This means expending not just money, but many hours on learning how to use it. Many products became popular solutions not because they are the best, but because they have plenty of leaning resources, rich documentation and community support. Two great exemples are the Arduino and Raspberry Pi boards. But I understand that most of the clients of Xilinx solutions are big industries, that can pay training for their engineers.

[@berni8k]

Whoever made this decision at Xilinx should be fired by the end of the day and forbidden to be ever employed by Xilinix again(Even as a janitor).

[@AbdullahKahramanPhD]

I have just started learning about FPGAs and I am so glad I have chosen Lattice over Xilinx..

[@BurakEnez]

No more Xilinx products in my future designs... This act of Xilinx is out dated. It is not 70's or 80's! Come on!

[@MrPureBasic]

I'm a silent watcher of you since a long time. This is outrageous. The money I spend on chips is actually used against us. And if their lawyers at the legal department have enough time and money to do such absurd moves, they better fire half of them and adjust accordingly !!!

[@techjack1848]

I have also been a mostly silent watcher but now that I see how he reads pretty much every comment in his community I will surely comment more often! :D And I just hope that they will pull back once this gains more traction - but to me they are pretty much unbuyable for now, even if they pull back. It is outragios that someone who literally helps people using your own products gets sued by yourself... Whats wrong with all the big companies nowerdays - FIrst the Videogame companies go batshit crazy and now even FPGA Producers? 0_o

[@MrPureBasic]

@@techjack1848 What's wrong ? Well, they are controlled by too much overpaid lawyers and marketing pricks. The kind of people that can do what they do whether they are working for a banana plantation or a weapon manufaturer. They don't even need to understand what their company is doing. Fuck them.

[@RobertFeranec]

@@techjack1848 I read all comments.

[@gamemaster2618]

Aye they cost a bit don’t they haha they went up double since last year /-

[@GurpreetKakar4873]

WTF. I have lost respect for Xilinx.

[@RyanVasquez6089]

Same, I will now look into using lattice in my new design revision.

[@EhsanAlnazi]

Excellent video, personally I'm confused to use Altera or Xilinx now I'll go with Altera. Really thanks for help.

[@DjMolt]

Knowledge is a combination of thousands minds working at the same time. Any government/company shouldn't keep they resources as a secret. I can't wait to see a real time implementation of stable diffusion on FPGA! WE SHOULD BUILD THE FUTURE TOGETHER! OPEN SOURCE FOR THE WORLD!

[@Boffin55]

I could be wrong (as I'm not a lawyer -- disclaimer); but this should come under "Fair Use". A letter back to them, explaining that teaching people how to use their product is "Fair Use", and to politely bugger off would be in order. if you never want to be bothered by their lawyers again, I would suggest sending a copy of your letter to the appropriate State Bar Association (the professional association of lawyers) that the authors of your letter are licensed under.

[@AxiomofDiscord]

Trademarks don't fall under fair use.

[@fatih1922]

Xilinx pointing the pistol towards you but the barrel of the pistol is pointing xilinx it self.

[@corynrobinson]

The company I work for, moved away from Xilinx a few years ago. It wasn't because of this particular issue, but I'm getting a clearer picture as to why everyone is running away from them.

[@totally_lost1602]

The FpgaC team got shut down 15 years ago with a similar threat, simply because creating an open source tool that produced netlists for input to their P&R "exposed confidential IP" ... when the exact same interface descriptions were online is their documentation. Simply because two very abusive FAE's thought C as an HDL was a horrible thought and practice that didn't make sense ... fast forward to 2022, and C as an HDL IS their flagship design system for application acceleration. I've not used their FPGA's in a customer design since that threat, Altera certainly, and more recently GOWIN FPGA's have become a favorite.

[@goosenp]

Time to switch over to the free open source FPGA world instead, then you never have to deal with this nonsense again!

[@GetJesse]

Just curious, but which FPGAs have open hardware and/or open source?

[@scottdrake5159]

Lattice. Although they are not involved in the tools (at least not currently, to my knowledge). I wish that what the parent said was realistic; in software we're spoiled by more FOSS/FLOSS code than we could possibly read or use, and have never heard the term "IP core"; I am certain the concept would be totally foreign to almost all pure software programmers. However, we are at the dawn of open-source FPGA, thanks to a project called IceStorm, the first complete free and open toolchain, thanks to a brilliant guy named Clifford Wolf: * www.clifford.at/icestorm/ * hackaday.com/2018/10/03/icestorm-tools-roundup/ It's very, very early days, but we have affordable (

[@rjordans]

I've been working with the ECP5 series lately and that does pack quite a punch, looking forward to the new support for that series, still need to find some time to play with the tools though. From the ICE40 synthesis tools I was pleasantly surprised at how fast they are yet still seem to generate quite reasonable solutions.

[@GRBtutorials]

I never used any of their products because Altera Cyclone boards are easy to get and cheap, and I discovered that you can’t download their software from their website without having to provide a lot of personal info due to some “US export” BS. Neither Altera or Lattice do that. And now this... I think I’m not getting a Xilinx FPGA any time soon...

[@briancrane7634]

I specified Xilinx products for years in defense systems. This is definitely a smirch on their brand name and the quality and competency of their management.

[@vincei4252]

Robert, this Xilinx action is 100% unacceptable. I will be forwarding this to my circle. On a more personal level this makes my choices so much easier. Actions like this from corporate shills that *don't actually create anything* are actions that no Engineer should ever forget.

[@alex92569]

Hmm, may I infer that if I use both Xilinx and Intel chips on my board side-by-side I may easily end up in jail? The profession of electronic engineer is one step of becoming criminal. Where the hell this world is going I wonder?

[@RandomHacks]

Why? That is so stupid from Xilinx... The more people know hot to program their FPGAs the more they potentially sell so I don't get it. I think this is very bad marketing for them... it's just crazy.

[@RobertFeranec]

Exactly what I think.

[@mkrete]

You would think they would logically think that, but they want to control the whole xilinx ecosystem including training. When you bypass their training material, they believe they are losing money. They don't see the benefit of having more people willing to use their products through 3rd party training.

[@alfredomamani2269]

I am looking at this video in 2023, I want to begin my first projects with FPGA. I thought Xilinx FPGA could be a great option, but now I don't know what to do. Should I choose another brand as Altera or Microchip? Please if someone can help me, I will be so grateful. :,3

[@blissettluther]

how can I get a voucher to deploy software onto the Xilinx U250 hardware? looks like their cards are useless...

[@hjups]

This is ridiculous, especially since I often do comparisons between implementations in Xilinx and Altera devices (for performance reasons), although I never use their logos. Now the next question is if they will start to sue universities that teach FPGA programming, especially if they teach both Quartus and Vivado. As far as switching to Altera, they (especially Intel) are not so virtuous either. I have had a lot of problems with Intel and Altera regarding support for bugs in their software, and obtaining basic documentation (a bunch of it is under an NDA which university faculty, students, and freelancers are not eligible for). Also, I think that currently, Xilinx has a better performance per cost than Altera does with their 7-series (though I have only tried the Max 10 on Altera in their 10 series). And Xilinx has better optimization tools. Though all of those points for Xilinx are for performance intensive implementations (in HPC where a 2 MHz faster clock at the same price means a lot), which if you are working on a project without that requirement then those points are moot. Lattice and Actel might be better choices for CPLD applications though, mostly because they aren't big enough to flex their legal muscles like Xilinx and Intel.

[@hasanalattar9561]

1:26 is that (dave effect)? :D

[@leyasep5919]

Xilinx is a jerk. Altera is a jerk. I favor the smaller ones : Lattice is OK, Microchip/Microsemi/Actel used to be my preferred (for personal reasons).

[@nemesis5324]

I'm waiting for your course with altera hardware

[@AfterHoursEngineering]

Because it makes no sense at all it almost seems as if there is collusion between the expensive content creators (aka training sites) and the chip maker where one agrees to up-sell for the other in exchange for exclusivity and promotion. What else could it be. The training company has a lot to gain--and lose-- if it doesn't have exclusivity.

[@globalhell5046]

So crazy. Shameful gatekeeping. I wonder why almost every FPGA company is like this.

[@christiansmith2547]

You're a kick butt educator. It hurts them and their consumers. Regardless, I still appreciate your honesty and you making this video. After hearing about this, I will be considering their competitors.

[@RobertFeranec]

Thank you Christian. PS: I have not used Xilinx since that incident ... and I am not planning to.

[@gizer20]

WTF! i don't even have words, we should start a revolution to help Robert. What a jerk move!

[@RamirosLab]

Robert, I am at CES 2019 and I will ask them about this issue on my KZbin channel (this one, V3). I hope this is a big misunderstanding. We'll see. I will also want to talk in private with you. Keep it up!

[@RamirosLab]

Robert, finally after this long CES I was able to get to the place where Xilinx was, but is just an office space to hold meetings and only sales people was present. I went over that place three times and they where always on meetings, but also I feel that it was pointless to confront sales since they had zero say on this issue. Sorry, this direction wasn't productive at all.

[@dyu007]

Teaching programmimg of Xilinx's FPGA affects their workshop revenue, but they don't have exclusive rights for teaching Xilinx FPGA chips. Keep teaching! Don't be afraid.

[@RobertFeranec]

I agree

[@wolvenar]

I just got this as a recommended. I am very glad to find you, despite the reason for this video. Certainly got a new subscriber for it. I am SURE they would have lost in court, but at this point it doesn't matter.

[@mcuembedded]

This kind of behavior is reflected everyday by KZbin too. Especially when videos are declared unfit for advertizer willy nilly for no sensible reason. I hope they come back and say that it was a mistake. Preventing a community from using their name or logo will only kill their brand.

[@DaveCurran]

They've clearly got it wrong here, and their actions here make me less likely to consider using their products in future. When planning a new product, one of the main considerations is the amount of available information, tutorials, blog posts etc. If it's all hidden behind expensive training courses, then, sorry, I'll look for another device.

[@Nik930714]

I was thinking about starting FPGA design as a side thing (my day job is an embedded developer). I will certainly not use Xilinx chips after thing BS.

[@onderarik3279]

What is the latest update on this issue?

[@platin2148]

Altera is so far behind it's even funny that Xilinx even considered this. Just get a right for it apple also doesn't like to use there logo without permission this is just there right (especially the red logo). For the fpga as a chip that's for them not a problem it's covered.

[@stefanogrillo6040]

Well now xylinx cant do this anymore. I wondered if the video contained comparisons between the two products and made advantage one brand over the other (i havent actually see it so i cant judge that)

[@K.D.Fischer_HEPHY]

You know thats serious when Robert says "WOW".

[@mohammedal-badri1226]

Thank you so much, I am working to design new embedded and SoC board, I will completely leave the Xilinx FPGA.

[@EasyTromLabs]

Hey man, send this guys to the he*** and made only Altera FPGAs videos. Don't stop the idea to reach people. You're doing a very nice job.

[@awesomefacepalm]

Im studying to become a computer engineer. Good to find out what brands I should avoid in the future. Xilinx seems like a really shitty conpany

[@smenor]

Thanks for this - there is no chance we'll use Xilinx as long as they're doing this

[@ats89117]

Sounds like this would be covered under "Fair Use", especially if the logo is only on the chips. Dave wasn't lucky to get a response from Weller. It was in their business interests to try to resolve the issue. If you (or better, somebody with many more subscribers) starts putting up videos saying that people should use Altera because Xilinx has user hostile policies, they will change their behavior.

[@RobertFeranec]

I really would like to know why they did it - what the real reason is. Let's see if this video will help someone from Xilinx at least answer my email and explain what happen. I do not have so many subscribers as Dave, so I do not have any special expectations, but maybe if enough people share this video, it would help a lot.

[@yasithawijesinghe1047]

Thank you very much for the video, shared

[@zhitailiu3876]

Really not acceptable! Can Altera support Fedevel Academy since now? XD

[@balakrishnaj8600]

Thank you very much sir Am a firm follower to you After giving millions dollar bussines to xilinx support also just like that only I will look for alternatives like Intel and other chips Thank you

[@lost4468yt]

You can publish that email. You can't just write that in there and make it unshareable. Please lookup any case law if you don't believe me. How absurd do you think it would be if we could prevent people from sharing stuff we don't like by just writing "this is only for the intended recipients blah blah blah"... Please release it.

[@RobertFeranec]

Xilinx called me yesterday and they are trying to sort this out. I told them, that it would be good if they send me an official Xilinx response which can be published. PS: Yeah, I thought exactly the same - just putting a few words in an email, telling that the content is confidential and only for the addressee sounds absurd from preventing me to talk about it, but you know, they have a big lawyer company behind them, I didn't want to risk it. Sometimes things seems to be logical, but the law may interpret it differently. Let's see what will be in their official answer.

[@yaghiyahbrenner8902]

I will use Altera

[@FurEngel]

I switched all my new logic designs to Lattice FPGA.

[@atlantixeda9557]

Thank you Robert for the video. This action by Xilinx is not acceptable from any perspective that I can consider. Xilinx will be losing customers and business based on this action.

[@sammyiyi7136]

Dear Robert Pls confirm if this email is truely from the Lawyers of Xilinx. It could be a scam.... If its true , then I will repost my initial comment. Thanks.

[@lhxperimental]

These companies are dinosaurs. They should learn a thing or two from Google. Gone are the days where you would sell training. Today companies have to compete for developer attention. Xilinix is shooting itself in the foot with this policy.

[@lost4468yt]

What country do you live in? You should be covered under multiple fair use clauses in the USA.

[@rock3tcatU233]

This is why open source is the future.

[@lxm2600]

As an IoT platform and prototyping consultant I regularly make recommendations for hardware choices for several big corporations, including some of the biggest automotive busineses on the planet. None of them want to be locked in with a vendor behaving like this. Thank you for making my job a bit easier!

[@goldencpu3559]

On hearing this, my first thought was to take all the videos and dub "cuuuuunnnnttttts" over any spoken mention of xilinx and blurring out the same on any devices

[@cepwin]

You would think they'd want you to use their products in your classes....free advertising for them. Just switch to one of the other brands and be done with them. I'd also check with a lawyer and understand what your rights are.

[@Dazdigo]

If they try to take this down, you should contest it. This video and those educational courses fall under fair use.

[@study-advancedelectronics2205]

Now I just realized how my electronics knowledge is advanced, and how far away I am from that that lecturers are teaching my class in university. I am now annoyed of stuff like that.

[@JoseSilva-dy1op]

Why not Lattice

[@techjack1848]

Ever used Lattice DIamond?...

[@RobertFeranec]

I have used lattice long time ago - I will need to check them again. I mostly followed Xilinx and Altera ... I have used xilinx before (it was my first FPGA) and we have done some layouts for Altera chips.

[@techjack1848]

@@RobertFeranec Haha that was more of an sarcastic reply - I used Lattice DIamond once and really didnt enjoy it compared to Altera or Xilinx... The only thing I rememeber to be quite nice were the IP Cores they provided for free :D.

[@buzzhansen8824]

Xi WHO? Altera is the ONLY FPGA fish in the sea IMHO. I designed close to $2M of Xilinx in my life (Xilinx and Avnet are welcome) but once I found Altera, Quartus II and NIOS, Xilinx and their quirks became a distant memory. I would NEVER consider Xilinx again! If you do use the Xilinx logo, please put a big red Ghostbusters slash over it!

[@anga6275]

Thanks for the info.I'll be sure to avoid xilinx in the future.I'll tell my colleagues back in the USA about what they have done and phase out their products from our organization

[@carlosornelas90]

Sadly I will continue to consume xilinx products, quartus(altera) can be a total pain, specially while building and coding a nios ii design. Although altera is usually cheaper. I am not a senior electrical engineer.

[@Bilal.Bashir]

Some companies are big but too small.

[@microtronics4994]

if every engineer consider this as insult for all engineers and no one helps xilinx by anyway .... then their stupid marketing plan would be blown off .

[@microtronics4994]

i was about going to learn FPGA ... then now i know which board i'm gonna learn ... and that will skip the comparing step in my learning path .

[@homemade83]

you just mentioned their name wait for the lawyers then

[@RobertFeranec]

Yep.

[@pedroaguilarquispe4197]

Realmente preocupante la situación, soy entusiasta en el tema de FPGA y me asusta el hecho de que la compañía XILINX porque simplemente "no le gusta" el contenido, envíen abogados, es preferible usar mejor ALTERA y no correr riesgos.

[@stingray427]

maybe I missed something in the video, but if Xilinx is bothered with logo only, what's the problem? Just don't use the logo, it is not necessary in a documentation, or is it?

[@Swanicorn]

I pledge to boycott Xilinx. No matter what their "friendly" response was, the fact that such an incident happened in the first place is disgusting enough. The lawyers should have first contacted Xilinx and taken permission from them before initiating legal notice. Such incidents are happening a lot and I think the parent companies should take responsibility and not let the lawyers run free will. It's like buying a new car and clicking a photo with it and posting it on instagram only to find that lawyers are after me cuz the car manufacturer's logo was visible in the photo. That's bullshit Xilinx. This can further discourage honest reviews and comparisons from knowledgeable people. I feel disgusted that I used to teach on Xilinx chips. Oh god so many students supporting the wrong company. I will make sure to include this incident in alumni meetups. I won't support or teach or use anything that hinders with sharing knowledge and education.

[@geekchenxiang]

In China, I got such mail from time to time. You don't need to answer that email. It is probably just a blackmail or threat mail to somebody who are just use the product, and want to ask some money from it. Just ignore it.

[@RobertFeranec]

Hmm, it is not so simple in US and EU. Let's see what Xilinx will answer - if they answer.

[@geekchenxiang]

BTW, the xilinx company maybe know nothing about the mail. Here in China, we have some intelligence property lawyers who has nothing to do but to send lawyer mail to every company which maybe use some CAD software and threat the users with some kind of "proof". For me, just ignore these kind of mail. These mail are blackmail. You did nothing wrong.

[@chong4136]

Did Xillinx resolved this? I know it is 4 years now and I am sure lots of customers have left Xillinx to somewhere else, but just curious they proceeded and acted on thier legal action?

[@kurzschlussjunkies]

If your products are significantly worse than the competition. It does not help to fight comparison. Make your products better for god's sake

[@robinhodson9890]

This kind of thing is rather counterproductive, as free courses encourage people to buy more FPGAs and tooling, IP, etc. That two logos are shown together is bunk: The logos are useful to identify vendors under fair use rules, ie what a logo is for. It doesn't imply association, nor indeed third party cross-association. The note in the small print saying the info is only intended for the recipient, ie that it is private to them - *not* that it is secret in any way. This whole affair sounds very silly.

[@kiyanvhd7821]

well, let say, sometimes an employee or one of the stupid staffs makes simple mistakes just for showing off. Otherwise, why such a huge company with millions of production per year should make silly mistakes and spend their resources to pursue legal users!!!! Something is wrong here, maybe they send you email or letter just for appeasement.

[@rudysonestanislao]

$2400 dollars. WOW... Even FPGA Engineers would not support that kind of price.

[@rousis]

Robert thank you very much for this video. I never liked Xilinx to be honest. Today after watching you, I have forwarded your video to my university and we decided to use anything else except Xilinix (how is this bullshit name spelled anyway?) for our projects. Law is the citizens... Xilinx and it's old school lawyers, don't have any idea in what kind of war they are getting into...

[@prashkd7684]

I've worked at one of these giant tech companies and am well aware how employess at these companies are protective of their IPs. While this approach help maintain "value" of those employees, I find it incredibly counterproductive for the company as they are always struggling to find the righ. If i create a product, I'd had it out for free to students and hobbyists for "free marketing" and if it ends up helping the opensource community then that's just cherry on top.

[@rudysonestanislao]

7:18 I like your words in there.

[@ksitau]

+Robert Feranec have you tried any of these FPGA: lcsc.com/product-detail/Others_AGM-Microelectronics-AG1280Q32_C217763.html?

[@mohamedtebbo123]

I was going to purchase the vhdl course !!! Now I know why I couldn't find it !!!!

[@klontjespap]

i was on the verge on getting onto the FPGA train (mainly just for emulation, but also to see what it was about) noted that i'll not buy a xilinx, this is against progress...

[@vejymonsta3006]

Apparently they only want to work with corporations who can afford their training.

[@yuraamirov7893]

Whaaaat ?!?! this is inacceptable on so many levels ... sending lawyers on someone who teaching this heavy material , even xilinx don't make such effort to teach FPGAs and make FPGA mainstream in market . Robert I will not touch any xilinx part/tool till I will hear that xilinx have made an official apologize !

[@JoseSilveira-newhandleforYT]

When bureaucrats take control of a tech company, that's what happens - first they draw all weapons and go for the kill and only after they see it seriously backfired, they stop to think (FTDI is a good example of bureaucrat hubris).

[@peteabc1]

I'd ask at industrial property office (urad priemyselneho vlastnictva) and/or ombudsman. The protection of registered trademark is quite limited and can be different per country. Also you can have same trademark registered by different companies in different countries (like Tesla). The only problem I see is that you're selling the videos. Some legal.html bullshit on their website is irelevant, important is what the law says.

[@RipCityBassWorks]

The fundamental issue is copyright reform: the current copyright system is corrupt and skewed toward large companies that use it to their advantage to keep the status quo. The European Article 11 and Article 13 would only make it worse if they pass. Someone needs to stand up for the smaller creators/developers who do the actual innovating.

[@WagonLoads]

I have studied electronics my entire life. Oddly, the difference between a $2 course and a $2000 course is the same as the difference between using Xilinx and not using Xilinx... in ALL future products I will ever produce.... That could be boards numbering into the millions.. The same thing goes for Chip scalpers.. If scalpers drive up chip prices. I will just find a chip that sells at less than MSRP... and redesign the entire board around the lower price chip.

[@stevenx3m]

It's very simple. Such companies are only interested in their profit and they will do anything to stop anyone who shares knowledge. The worst part is those expensive trainings are jsut too short and limited and you don't really learn enough for the money you pay. The best you can do is avoid such companies in your projects.

[@prussian7]

Did they send the lawyers, or did the lawyers send themselves? I worked at a company where that happened. Just the same I will not be planning on using them for development now.

[@RobertFeranec]

I have some answer, but I will ask Xilinx for explanation what can be shared publicly. Many people would like to know what happen.

[@pacsmile]

Absolutely terrible, but this looks like a good oportunity for Altera to counter this behaviour by embracing the people out there educating other about their products.

[@BMRStudio]

Wow! What a heck? Really? No problem, in my next project I will use Altera. FU X.........X ! ( characters are removed by copyright issues)

[@cristianmozzon]

use Lattice