Re: LANceGS Ethernet Card: First Look

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DawnWolf wrote in message ...

>50 bucks, don't make me laugh :). I have an abandoned multi-serial
>board project sitting here, and that wouldn't go for $50, let alone an
>Ethernet card. $50 (or lower) is possible with the current crop of PC
>cards _only_ because of volume. When you do small series, and you want
>a professional job for the board, that alone eats a lot of money right
>there. Components in small quantities don't come cheap, either. The
>$50 is clearly nonsense, I can't see for the life of me how it would
>be possible. Maybe the guy would be good enough to show us his
>calculation of how he arrived at $50?


$10.90  Crystal CS8900A   http://www.insight-electronics.com/
$1.45    Valor ST7011        http://www.avnet.com/
$0.97    300-6142-1-ND      http://www.digikey.com/     (20mhz crystal)
$2.69    32KX8-15LVDIP     http://www.jdr.com/       (sram buffer)
$8.14    XC9572-10PC84C  http://www.avnet.com/      (cpld)
$1.50    74xx245                 Radio shack, off the shelf
$0.59    rj45 jack                 http://www.jameco.com/
???  WDC 65c816S8Q-14   http://www.wdesignc.com/ch816S.html
???  128k flash rom

PCB approximately 2.5" x 2.75", that means 64 will fit on a blank (20" x
24") 2 layers, silkscreening,  should be about $130. Figure $180 even, since
I have no idea if this includes solder mask or not, gold plating card edges,
that sorta thing. Works out to $3 or so per pcb.

Caps/resistors... no idea what we need without a final design. Allow $5 for
this.

My quick total comes to $34.24. The flash rom is 4 dollarish, so it all
hinges on 65c816's for $12. I've seen hints that they cost $6 apiece, but
for all I know, that is in qty 10,000. Of course, may find we can go with a
cheaper CPLD, but if we do go with this particular model, the designer
assures me he could add an IDE hard drive interface for practically zero
added cost. We might come in over $50, but its gonna be close. In other
words, go fuck yourself. I'm not some price-gouging motherfucker like every
vendor in the hobbyist computer market is, I'm just another guy who decided
to see if this was doable without actually being in business to do it. If
asslicks like you don't appreciate the time that I and several other
generous folks have already put into this, and the time we will put into it
from this point on, the you really are a degenerate soulless little freak
that can't possibly enjoy anything having to do with the Apple//. Go away.
    Oh, another thing, while coding for the Apple// is something new for me,
I could write any network app I choose to in a night. Let me guess, you
write VB database apps for a living? Or maybe you have even less talent than
that.

Eat shit,
John Oyler
http://aIIethernet.tripod.com/
jojo4@va.mediaone.net