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From: msp33327@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Michael S. Pereckas)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: Yet Another Upgrade Anecdote
Message-ID: <1990May8.045111.617@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>
Date: 8 May 90 04:51:11 GMT
References: <43777@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu> <1161.263f4987@gp.govt.nz> <23254.26434102@ccavax.camb.com> <1990May6.133250.18193@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> <385@newave.UUCP>
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john@newave.UUCP (John A. Weeks III) writes:

[much deleted]

>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?

I think this analogy is flawed.  This is not component sharing as much
as something else.  It is like going to the car dealership and
hearing, "This Cadallac costs $25,000, but this other model, which is
really the same, is only $18,000 because we bashed the sides in for
you at the factory."  (Please, no jokes about how they already do
that) While there may be reasonable business reasons for offering a
basicaly similar but more limited and less expensive model, it seems
to a lot of us that there must be a better way than this.  Filling the
slots with epoxy seems rather sneaky and underhanded.  I certainly
would be suspicious of a company that did things like this.

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

Engineers never did like accountants much anyway, right?
--
Michael Pereckas              * InterNet: m-pereckas@uiuc.edu *
    CI$: 72311,3246             NovaNET:  m pereckas / imsa89 / cerl
+     My opinions are mine (no one else wants them, that's for sure).    +
+ I will accept no criticism of my spelling of any words not in the OED2 +