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Re: ProDev DDT16
Steven Hirsch wrote:
I find it just infuriating how some vendors gleefully discard any and
all information about older units. I mean, how much trouble is it pop
up a scan of the manual and some diskette images or ZIP archives? No
one is asking for them to support it, but it's just common courtesy to
at least make them available "as is".
If HP and Tektronix can supply information (and, in some cases, parts)
relative to 30 year old test equipment, these guys should certainly be
able to oblige on an early-90s programmer.
That unit doesn't come with software as far as I can tell, so it's
basically worthless. All I _want_ it for is to read/burn older EPROMs,
so it's potentially perfect. I have a Willem 4.5 for newer EPROMS and
MPUs and a Stag programmer for PAL/GAL/PLD devices.
It's the difference in corporate cultures.
HP and Tek are engineering companies and think like engineers even
in their marketing departments (at least in what was HP's Instrument
Division, now Agilent).
Both companies have a tradition of building precision devices with
long service lives, and rich libraries of application and service
information. Support lives of 30+ years are (were?) common.
Newer digital technology companies tend to value running fast and
shedding weight, so every time they move their office, non-current
information goes away (or into the garages of some of their older
engineers ;-).
It would be nice if this would change in the direction of better
information retention, but experience has taught me not to expect
much change in corporate culture...
-michael
AppleCrate: An Apple II "blade server"!
Home page: http://members.aol.com/MJMahon/
"The wastebasket is our most important design
tool--and it's seriously underused."