Newsgroups: comp.sys.transputer From: "Stephen Maudsley" Subject: Re: Post Mortem Organization: esgem limited Date: Tue, 17 Feb 1998 20:57:52 -0000 Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; harset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Message-ID: <6cd4h7$ser$1@mendelevium.btinternet.com> Alec Cawley wrote in message ... >In article <34E9B458.85AA676B@netscape.com>, David Boreham > writes >>pete wrote: >> >>> but the pricing still the biggest nag was way out who was going >> >>I don't think this is true. In volume, the transputer >>devices were offered at competitive prices >>throughout the time when the device was a contender >>for use in newly designed equipment. I can't remember >>a single case where a major piece of business was >>lost on price. Can anyone else ? >> >>People in this newsgroup often complain about prices, >>but typically on very low volume through distribution. >>Guys, get real about the semiconductor industry ! >>Volume is everything. The vendors couldn't care less >>about losing a tiny distribution account due to price. >>If you knew the prices being offered to Atari, >>IBM and others at the time you'd probably have >>a fit. > > >I would say that pricing was not an issue with us until about four years >ago, when the price was not showing the dropoff appropriate to an >elderly part. When first developed the system cost of a transputer plus >support looked like very good value for money. But the price did not >fall over the years in the way people expect. Generally prices fall with elderly semiconductor designs as the designs are moved onto higher density processes. For example the ever popular Z80 dropped to about 50c to US$1 in volume over about four or five process revs. I don't think the T425 generation transputer has been on any radically new process for about seven or eight years. The last transputer design I was involved with used the TP2 part and that was certainly price competative at the time. We would have found it difficult to have designed it in without so many ex-Inmos people in our design team though. --------------------- Stephen Maudsley Stephen.Maudsley@btinternet.com esgem limited Tel/Fax: +44-1453-521626 Mobile: +44-370-810991 ---------------------