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Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!apple!bbn!bbn.com!slackey
From: slackey@bbn.com (Stan Lackey)
Newsgroups: comp.arch,comp.graphics
Subject: Re: i82786 R.I.P. ?
Message-ID: <41891@bbn.COM>
Date: 23 Jun 89 13:47:56 GMT
References: <1987@ubu.warwick.UUCP>
Sender: news@bbn.COM
Reply-To: slackey@BBN.COM (Stan Lackey)
Organization: Bolt Beranek and Newman Inc., Cambridge MA
Lines: 27

In article <1987@ubu.warwick.UUCP> arthur@flame.warwick.ac.uk (John Vaudin) writes:
>I read some rumours in a UK magazine that Intel have stopped production
>of their i82786 graphics co-processor. This seems odd to me ...

>If this rumour is true then I am interested what implications this has to the
>current RISC market. If manufacturers are going to stop production of
>chips because sales are not as high as hoped for then what ...

In cases where you are worried about this, like your company depends
on some part, there is a way to protect yourself.  Lore has it that it
is possible to get production rights if the supplier decides to stop
making it.  If you can, get the agreements signed before committing to
the part.  Now I imagine some suppliers might not want to sign such an
agreement, like they might not want to give away all their process
information if it is a custom process.  Then it's your decision if you
want to take a risk on the part, or perhaps use one from another
vendor that may not be as good.

Other approaches include buying up-front the entire volume you think
you will ever need.  (If the supplier won't sell them to you, it
should give you a real strong hint as to what is going on.)  This,
naturally, may be impractical for a small company.

If you do have production rights, and the process isn't too obtuse, 
you should be able to get the chip made.  It will probably end up
costing more, since the volumes aren't there.
-Stan    my opinions alone etc.