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Technology Stocks : Intel Corporation (INTC) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Bill Jackson who wrote (63684)	9/1/1998 4:52:00 AM
From: Gerald Walls	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 186894

Gerald, I think we are heading towards never upgraded boards taking a large part of the bottom end as costs tumble. I'd hate to throw away a $150 board and a $180 processor because the board had a glitch. How does the manufacturer test the board before putting a processor in it if it's surfaced mounted on? Probably cheaper to put on a socket so the processor can be more easily (less labor cost) saved from a reject board. Elimination of the socket and associated tradeoffs can save $50 per board in a P-II. This number seems unreasonably high. How did you calculate this number? A volkswaagen motherboard, good stable computing for ten years, what a horrible thought. Do want a Rabbit computer or a Corvette computer? If you really want a ten-year-old computer then you can probably find some 80386 or even some 80286 computers still running out there in Hooterville. And remember that they seemed as fast then as the current processors do now. I remember my 80386-33. It was a real screamer. Your good, stable motherboard will become a good, stable boat anchor long before it stops working. They already do now so why will making the thing last even longer change anything? We are as dependent on programmed obsolescence as the auto giants were in the 50/60 era until the volkwagon came along. The difference between the auto industry and the computer industry is that the auto industry didn't really have to make any advancements (until EPA, etc). All they did was make something that wore out and they changed the style. If the auto industry were like the computer industry then each year the cars would have to be able to carry more and more payload (heftier programs) as people expected more and more out of each model. While there may be a small degree of programmed obsolescence in the CPU industry related to marketing (C-A vs P-II) in general the industry is driven by what is technologically and economically possible.