Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!uunet!samsung!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!nic.MR.NET!jhereg!wd0gol!newave!john
From: john@newave.UUCP (John A. Weeks III)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: Yet Another Upgrade Anecdote
Message-ID: <385@newave.UUCP>
Date: 6 May 90 16:25:49 GMT
References: <43777@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu> <1161.263f4987@gp.govt.nz> <23254.26434102@ccavax.camb.com> <1990May6.133250.18193@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>
Reply-To: john@newave.mn.org (John A. Weeks III)
Organization: NeWave Communications Ltd, Eden Prairie, MN
Lines: 41

In article <1990May6.133250.18193@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> mcdonald@aries.scs.uiuc.edu (Doug McDonald) writes:
> In article <23254.26434102@ccavax.camb.com> merriman@ccavax.camb.com writes:
> > And then there was the infamous MicroVAX II RC (for restricted
> > configuration).  It sold cheap and was the same as any other MVII, except
> > the last four or five slots on the backplane were filled with epoxy!

> What do companies do stupid things like this for? All it can do is generate
> ill will. I look at a crippled product and say "what the hell are they trying
> to pull?

Consider the typical purchase senario:  develop a set of specs, then purchase
the cheapest machine the fills those specs.  If your specs call for a machine
like the MicroVAX II RC, it should make absolutely no difference that the
parts inside of the II RC are also in any other computer.  If you wanted
another computer, your purchase specs should have reflected that.

> I sure don't like the idea of doing business with a company that does things
> like that."  Are there actually people who fall for thsi kind of stuff?

1. Shouldn't you be very happy that DEC offered a machine like the IIRC
that was actually designed to sell for much more that what you were
required to pay?

2. Consider how much the typical automobile might cost if it were not allowed
to share parts with any of the cheaper or more expensive models available from
a typical car company.  Do you think that it is a crime that the car computer
in the Dodge Shadow (which I own) has features in it that are only used in
the Dodge Daytona turbo model?  Would the Shadow be cheaper if Dodge were
required to develop, support, and warehouse two different car computers, or
does one common module seem to make economic sense?

These are the kinds of problems that manufacturing engineers and managerial
accountants work on--not computer scientists.

-john-

-- 
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John A. Weeks III               (612) 942-6969               john@newave.mn.org
NeWave Communications                ...uunet!rosevax!bungia!wd0gol!newave!john
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