Continuing the discussion from here: https://amigaworld.net/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?mode=viewtopic&topic_id=45508&forum=16&start=500&viewmode=flat&order=0#880974

@Hammer

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Hammer wrote: @cdimauro Quote: Who was the (technical) responsible for that? Was it Porter again? After the C65's 8-bitplane chipset reveal and Rubin's approval, AGA ASIC R&D was done by a CSG LSI team member.

Which proves that there was the possibility to have a new Amiga chipset.
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AA3000 and AA1000plus are system integration projects.

What's the point here? It's normal that a product is made of different components which are assembled & work together to fit the project scope.

BTW, I'm System Integration Test Lead at BMW, and I'm working on exactly this area (e.g.: SERVING the System Integration by testing the assembled products).
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AA3000 acted as the primary system integration test platform for AGA.

That's normal: you need a testing platform for the product coming from the system integration (process).

I'm also responsible and manage/handle/steer the entire test farm for BMW's Infotainment system, so I know very well this topic, too.
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Jeff Porter was a task allocator within the system engineering group within the bounds of management directives e.g. Herni Rubin's monochrome hi-res management directive.

So, it was a project manager which roughly acted also as a "scrum master" (!).
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Herni Rubin has other directives, not just monochrome hi-res.

Nothing to say, here: we know that Commodore was working at several projects in parallel, and he was responsible for some of them.
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Quote: The hierarchy was defined, but the technical people were incompetent and not even able to agree on the SPECs of a project... Wrong. Similar-ranked headstrong engineers are not cooperating, which needs proper leadership i.e. the captain is missing in action. A1000's project had Jay Miner as leader for both system integration and custom ASIC design for both ICS and OCS (drop-in 64 color EHB improvement).

I agree on that. There were too many engineers which had completely different ideas on how (IF) to evolve the platform, which stalled its development.

Managers need a single point of contact as a reference regarding technical topics, and this was clearly missing.

I manage several engineers working on different areas / work packets, and I've a responsible for each of them to whom I talk about the activities to be performed, issues, etc.. I don't need to talk with every single engineer regarding topics on a specific area, neither I need the technical knowledge (they are responsible and are paid for that, and they should deliver the expected results).
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After the A1000 project, the monochrome hi-res mandate was Herni Rubin's.

Like for other projects.
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Quote: This furtherly proves how engineers were doing whatever they wanted, even against what managers had said them to do. Managers are oblivious to PC graphics.

As you reported from the book, no: it wasn't the case. Managers knew PC graphics (and Mac graphics as well), and they started meetings for discussing the specs of the Next Big Thing exactly with the purpose of contrasting the competition which became very serious.
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Quote: In fact, Hedley haven't proved why this ‘bitplane to pixel converter’ was so important for the... CDTV. Which was Commodore's multimedia machine. 1. For the CDTV-CR project after CDTV. 2. Improved PC graphics handling without modifying the core Amiga graphics.

Again, that wasn't the purpose for those specific products, as I've already tried to explain.
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Quote: He has wasted time and resources for the company just to play with his idea... Amiga's multimedia group can only modify surrounding chips (i.e. system integration), and they don't have the mandate to change the core Amiga graphics design e.g. AGA R&D needs Henri Rubin's approval. Amiga's multimedia group only has a system integration mandate. Remember, the system engineering group was responsible for CBM's 8-bit business desktops and C900's system integration. The system engineering group created a VLSI team for AAA and Hombre. VLSI team recycled some engineers from the CSG LSI team. VLSI team is under the system engineering group's administration. The CSG's LSI team is responsible for VIC-20 and C64 for both AISC and system integration R&D, which largely kept the CIC group alive until the A500 takeover. The problem is the weak business plan after A500. Corporate structure limitation is an executive board management problem. It was the executive board that deleted the original Los Gatos Amiga team.

Rubin's reaction to the LSI's C65 has shown that this mandate was certainly possible (e.g.: putting people from different teams together to work on a specific project).
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The Amiga lacks Ken Kutaragi's leadership capability.

Kutaragi was also a very good engineer, and Commodore clearly lacked them, as it was proven.