Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!jarthur!nntp-server.caltech.edu!piglet!madler
From: madler@piglet.caltech.edu (Mark Adler)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.handhelds
Subject: Re: HP48 Serial Interface Pins
Message-ID: <1990May5.015047.6766@laguna.ccsf.caltech.edu>
Date: 5 May 90 01:50:47 GMT
References: <128rhelps@yoda.byu.edu> <21580088@hpcvra.CV.HP.COM>
Sender: news@laguna.ccsf.caltech.edu
Organization: California Institute of Technology, Pasadena
Lines: 34

In article <21580088@hpcvra.CV.HP.COM> meghas@hpcvra.CV.HP.COM (Megha Shyam) writes:
>>us hanging on too long. RAM cards have arrived but the price is daunting.
>>With the current price of RAM chips for PCs does your special packaging really
>>justify $250 for 128K?
>
>Comparing RAM prices for PCs and deducing the price for the HP 48SX RAM card
>is like comparing apples and oranges; PC almost exclusively use dynamic RAMS
>which are of course very cheap; HP 48SX needs and uses static RAMS which are 
>much more expensive.  Part of the reason is one bit of a static RAM has 6
>transistors while i bit of a dynamic RAM has one transistor. 

Based on current mail order prices (just to be fair), a bit of dynamic ram
costs about 7 u$ (micro-dollars), while a bit of HP-48SX memory costs about
200 u$.  This factor of almost 30 is only partly accounted for by the 
increased chip area of static RAMs (and that factor is not six, but closer
to four since the dynamic ram is a transistor and a capacitor per bit).
The remaining factor of seven can be partially explained by the packaging
of the 128K cards, but I suspect that most of that factor is due to a
combination of lower volume production than 1Mx9 SIMM's and higher profit
margins, also due to the lower volume.  HP can have a higher profit
margin since they have essentially a captive audience for HP-48SX add-ons
and no real competition.  I do not begrudge them this profit, since how
else can they keep their employees so happy.  However, I have not bought
a 128K card yet, because of the price---especially the ratio of the add-on
price to the calculator itself, which is nearly one.  The purpose of this
note is to suggest to HP that they might realize greater profits on the
128K cards if they lower the price.  I suspect that the market research that
led to the current price is, perhaps, wrong.  Or, maybe they're smarter 
than me and getting the current price from those that will pay it, but once
that storehouse of die-hards is used up, THEN they'll lower the price to
seduce the next level of calculator junkies.

Mark Adler
madler@tybalt.caltech.edu