Dave Hanie wrote:
"Making a new chip isn't impossible these days either. Now, a fully
custom design is impractical; you would need about $250K to fund the
design and development of a small chip, given a designer working cheap
with existing tools"
This is true. We have the capability here to design custom chips for anyone,
but the cost is horrendous.
Whilst the chip you buy may not be expensive the cost of a single wafer run is
very high. The cost is just spread over lots of devices. Add in the cost of the
original design and you are talking about lots of money.
The question in my mind is: What is the most common fault with these boards?
Are the custom chips failing, or some other, cheaper and readily available
component? Could useable components be removed from old boards and remounted on
new ones? Is it a hard board or a flexible circuit?
I've also wondered about the merits of re-silvering old pentaprisms, which
could be done if the old metal can be stripped and new coatings put on. Some
one like Edmund Scientific may be able to recoat these.
Just my 0.02 Euros worth.
Chris
< This message was delivered via the Olympus Mailing List >
< For questions, mailto:owner-olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx >
< Web Page: http://Zuiko.sls.bc.ca/swright/olympuslist.html >
|