Date: Tue, 13 May 1997 11:45:08 +0930 (CST) From: Michael Smith <msmith@atrad.adelaide.edu.au> To: dennis@etinc.com (dennis) Cc: msmith@atrad.adelaide.edu.au, hackers@freebsd.org Subject: Re: if_de.c ???? Message-ID: <199705130215.LAA12478@genesis.atrad.adelaide.edu.au> In-Reply-To: <3.0.32.19970512101113.00bac288@etinc.com> from dennis at "May 12, 97 10:11:16 am"
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dennis stands accused of saying: > > > >Uhh. Dennis, pride doesn't pay the bills. Pride doesn't buy hardware > >for you to support. > > It this a line from Animal Farm? No. Are you a redneck? > >Vendors answer the phone? Hah! You gotta be dreaming. I've been > >hounding vendors for chip programming details for years, and the scene > >really hasn't changed a lot over time. The "nice" people still make > >data free, the "nasty" ones still hoard it jealously. > > Would be nice, wouldn't it? Indeed. > Certain things you're just not gonna get...so deal with it. Do you > think that SMC is gonna build another card with DEC-like chip when > anyone with a $500. layout program can clone the board and steal > their market? I can't see why not. They've been doing it for the last 15 years, I can't see them stopping now. If they do, I can see a lot of people giving them the Diamond/Matrox/Microchannel shoulder. (And if you actually _use_ a $500 layout suite, I feel _really_ sorry for you. And I have less faith in your products 8) > Its getting so easy to clone hardware, particularly > with single chip solutions, that you're going to see big vendors > refuse to use parts that have public specs...like you said, you > gotta pay the bills, and it doesnt pay to build hardware with > readily available hardware with public specs. There's no money in vanilla hardware, regardless of whether it uses publically-specified parts or not. The money is in image and software. If you have an image (eg. SMC, Intel, 3com), you can sell that on top of your at-cost hardware. If you have software for your cards, you can sell that too. If you're a klone vendor, you have to survive on the tiny margins to be had from your manufacturing. With no image to trade, and possibly with less wonderful software, you're not likely to be a serious threat to the original manufacturer for the life of the product. > Dennis -- ]] Mike Smith, Software Engineer msmith@gsoft.com.au [[ ]] Genesis Software genesis@gsoft.com.au [[ ]] High-speed data acquisition and (GSM mobile) 0411-222-496 [[ ]] realtime instrument control. (ph) +61-8-8267-3493 [[ ]] Unix hardware collector. "Where are your PEZ?" The Tick [[
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