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From: koopman@a.gp.cs.cmu.edu (Philip Koopman)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.forth
Subject: Re: Harris
Message-ID: <11284@pt.cs.cmu.edu>
Date: 5 Dec 90 16:54:18 GMT
References: <9012051459.AA18722@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU>
Organization: Carnegie-Mellon University, CS/RI
Lines: 29

In article <9012051459.AA18722@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU>, wmb@MITCH.ENG.SUN.COM (Mitch Bradley) writes:
> I realized that Harris does not know how to sell microprocessors.  This
> is not an indictment of Harris; it simply isn't their business.  ...
I would split a hair here.  Harris has *lots* of experience second-sourcing
extremely popular microprocessors (80C286)  or microprocessors sold to captive
markets.  The difference with RTX was that they couldn't simply duplicate
the prime manufacturer's spec sheets, app. notes, software...
Harris does silicon; it doesn't appear to do software and marketing
all that well for microprocessors.  The higher-ups at Harris took too
long to realize the full extent of what it takes to support a proprietary
instruction set processor.

> The merchant microprocessor industry is BIG business, and it takes big
> bucks and commitment to "ante up" and get in the game.
> "$15 and no support" may sound like a good idea, but as a business plan
> for a multinational company, it doesn't begin to work.
You said it.  It doesn't make sense for Harris to play in the RTX
arena unless there are prospects for several customers in the 10,000 to
100,000 piece per year range.  Who out there *realistically* can
plan to be there within 2 years?  (If so, contact me and I can put
you in touch with the people who are trying to keep stack-based
processors in the marketplace).  Too often I have heard from the
Forth community that they want it for $5, and they will need
100, maybe 500 over the next year or two...

  Phil Koopman                koopman@greyhound.ece.cmu.edu   Arpanet
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  Wexford, PA  15090
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