The Right Size There are companies
that are too big to care,
and there are companies that are too small to help,
and then there is Advin.
History We have been making
programming instruments since 1986.
Over the years, we have seen many programmer manufacturers
that have gone out of business.
Making a programmer to program one device is easy.
Making it able to program all devices from one semiconductor company is
hard.
Making it able to program all kinds of devices,
of different technologies,
from different semi houses, is a great challenge.
That's why you see many programmer manufacturers
who are here today but gone tomorrow.
Obsession
We are a little bit obsessed with quality.
We have a mentality that anything less than the best
is not acceptable.
For example, we use the best connectors and sockets
available in the world.
All electro-mechanical connections in the
programmer have to be gold.
Another example is that we never hand out pencils
or cheap imitation army knives as gifts.
The little Swiss army knife we give to customers
(as a reward for sending in their feedback forms)
are genuine Victorinox ones.
We just cannot stand anything with inferior quality.
Proximity We are located right
in the Silicon Valley,
where many major semi houses are located.
AMD is just across the street.
Altera, Atmel and Intel are within two freeway exits.
Cypress, Philips, SST, WSI, Xilinx, and many, many
others are within a few miles.
If we have any unsolvable problem, we can easily
bring it up to them
or have them come in and look at it.
Needless to say, samples and lunches are more readily
available and accessible too.
Marketing versus Engineering
Advin was founded by engineers from MIT, Stanford,
Intel and AMD. The company was largely built on
repeat customers and referrals.
And we admit that we are not very talented in
marketing and sales. We know more about engineering
than hyping. We are stubbornly reluctant to exaggerate
in our sales brochures.
We have paid for this with a price:
we should have grown faster, but we did not.
But what can you say to people who are just plainly stubborn?
The good side to this is: we are more stable as a business,
and our customers are happier.
We are not Arrogant
If you are an experienced device programmer user,
you probably know the common fact:
some companies are just too arrogant to deal with.
Some companies have grown big
and resulted in showing arrogance towards their customers.
It is just human nature. Some companies realize it, some don't.
We know who we serve, and we know that
customers must be taken care of,
otherwise they won't come back.
Our Belief We are firm believers
in many things, among them:
Murphy's law and all its derivatives.
There shall be no fake flowers or plants in our company.
The future belongs to the efficient.
The customer must be happy.
Feedbacks
We make up for our shortcomings by constantly
and persistantly asking for customer feedbacks.
And we hold on to this:
Treat others the same way as you would like to be treated.
Case in point: If any of us is buying a new car,
we expect it to be perfect and to last,
so we must make our products that way.
If you find agreement with our philosophy,
then there is a good chance that you'll be happy with us.
Please give us a call:
1-888-GO-ADVIN, (1-888-462-3846)
or 1-408-243-7000.
FAX 408-541-9006. Sunnyvale, CA.