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Path: utzoo!linus!wivax!decvax!genrad!mit-eddie!smh
From: smh@mit-eddie.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.misc
Subject: Re: Artificially different products
Message-ID: <390@mit-eddie.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 4-Jul-83 22:01:10 EDT
Article-I.D.: mit-eddi.390
Posted: Mon Jul  4 22:01:10 1983
Date-Received: Thu, 7-Jul-83 01:52:57 EDT
References: <144@flairvax.UUCP>
Organization: MIT, Cambridge, MA
Lines: 38

The recently posted descriptions of product lines with artificial
pricing for essentially identical hardware prompts me to add
two more:

-	When PDP11's were young, the common tty interface board was
	the DL11 (approximately a single-line DZ) which came in five
	flavors differing in their modem-control capabilities, RS232
	vs. current loop, etc.  I had a machine with a current loop
	board which I wanted to `convert' to a  RS232.  My DEC salesman
	could sell me a `converter' to do the job at about $50.  This
	seemed reasonable at the time, but I was in a rush, so I thought
	to check the board to see if perhaps positions had been left
	for adding RS232 converter chips (MC1488,9).  I was astonished
	to find them already present.  Reading of the charts while being
	careful to ignore the fictions of the accompanying user manual
	proved that the only difference between the DL11A,B,C,D,E
	versions were jumpers on its 40-pin tty connector socket!
-	In the days of unit record (card) tabulator equipment, there
	was an IBM beast called a 407 which could actually do fairly 
	sophisticated stuff, but was generally used around real computers
	as a slow card listing device.  The machine was a wondrous and
	curiously reliable maze of cams, levers, and strange gizmos.
	There were undoubtably zillions of options, but two printing
	speeds were available: 120 and 180 CPM (cards per minute!).
	I never worked with the 180 CPM version, but I still remember
	the pleasant 3 Hz cycle of the slower (and more common?) kind:
		PRINT-PRINT-swish-PRINT-PRINT-swish-PRINT-PRINT-swish
	Make of it what you will -- I never looked inside at the cams...
Actually, in sympathy with these two largest and allegedly reputable
computer manufacturers, I can imagine pressures for such artificialities
arising from the developmental history of a product line.  A faster,
cheaper, or better version of a frob if priced `honestly' can cause
hard feelings in the poor slob who just bought the old style.  Then too,
what does a manufacturer do who leases out most of his units and has a
huge inventory?
				Steve Haflich
				genrad!mit-eddie!smh