Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!uunet!decwrl!ogicse!orstcs!ECE.ORST.EDU!daver
From: daver@ECE.ORST.EDU (Dave Rabinowitz)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.handhelds
Subject: Re: HP promo
Message-ID: <19888@orstcs.CS.ORST.EDU>
Date: 17 Aug 90 19:46:46 GMT
References: <1854@ac.dal.ca> <5088@uafhp.uark.edu> <32806@cup.portal.com>
Sender: usenet@orstcs.CS.ORST.EDU
Organization: Oregon State University -- Electrical & Computer Engineering
Lines: 16

In article <32806@cup.portal.com> Jake-S@cup.portal.com (Jake G Schwartz) writes:
>.... .. ......... .. ........ ...........? They can't just start making
>chips in a frenzy, and if they discover a minor bug just scrap the whole
>mess and throw out the first umpteen thousand chips for the next revision.

Actually HP has done this on several occasions.  A classic situation was when
the Series-C calculators were first being put into production.  A problem was
found with the ROM chips which caused them to incorrectly read a few locations
under very rare power conditions.  HP threw out several hundred thousand
dollars worth of chips and delayed introduction a couple of months for that.
The code for the 38C had a bug which wasn't found until the chip was in
production.  Those chips were thrown away.  The key question is how much are
customers willing to pay in increased prices to avoid MINOR bugs with
workarounds?  If the rev B-D ROMS had been discarded and introduction of
the calculator postponed for a few months, guess where the money to do this 
would have had to have come from?