Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uwm.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!crdgw1!crdos1!davidsen
From: davidsen@crdos1.crd.ge.COM (Wm E Davidsen Jr)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: 386SX replacements for 80286 machines
Keywords: whatever happened to them?
Message-ID: <1558@crdos1.crd.ge.COM>
Date: 3 Nov 89 23:00:16 GMT
References: <786@awdprime.UUCP> <1989Nov2.080213.2989@ico.isc.com> <19132@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU>
Reply-To: davidsen@crdos1.UUCP (bill davidsen)
Organization: GE Corp R&D Center
Lines: 42

In article <19132@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU>, hunt@ernie.Berkeley.EDU (Jim Hunt) writes:

|  Stop and consider here.  If the cost of a motherboard is the cost
|  of manufacture, plus amortized development costs, then why are
|  the SX boards so cheap?  Might it be that we are just getting 286
|  boards with 386SX stuffed in?  I can't explain $400 motherboards
|  any other way when all the DX boards are $1000 (other than charge
|  what the market will bear).  So, if they can munge the design to
|  take an SX, and sell us whole motherboards for $400, then how
|  much could it cost for a tiny daughter board?

  Actually with what needs to be on the "tiny daughter board" quite a
bit. The cost of putting a lot of stuff in a small place is always
higher than a larger space, at least when the small space pushes the
limits of fabrication processes. Does anyone but AOX have a plug in?

  Since my wife owns a system house, I'll say a word about dealer
prices. You pay for brand name and *perceived* value, not cost. That's
why IBM costs more than Joe's Clones. IBM has the production line to
make the box cheaper, they charge for the name. Before I get a lot of
flames, yes, you may get better service from IBM, but Joe may be
competent and honest, too. 

  Okay, here are some prices for motherboards (0k, 2 or more):
	386SX		$286
	386/20		$430
	386/25 cache	$575

  The low prices don't mean crap, they mean "no reputation." They
represent the actual cost of manufacture from someone who has nothing
to sell but the product. Look at Micronics and MYLEX prices. Why are
these so high, and why is AMI priced higher than the others? These are
all top quality boards, but a lot of what you buy is name, still. The
cost of manufacture is not proportionally higher than the low priced
brands. What you get for your extra money is a high probability of a
satisfactory product.

-- 
bill davidsen	(davidsen@crdos1.crd.GE.COM -or- uunet!crdgw1!crdos1!davidsen)
"The world is filled with fools. They blindly follow their so-called
'reason' in the face of the church and common sense. Any fool can see
that the world is flat!" - anon