[Info-vax] Chinese Alpha?

[David Froble]

Hans Vlems wrote:

> Exactly my point Paul. The problem with US commercial thinking is that
> "better equals cheaper".
> Occasionally a good product demands a higher pricetag. Digital built
> quality equipment and sold it at
> a higher pricelevel than the competition. That quality allows me to
> run VAX systems that are 20 years
> old and these systems keep on going. The same applies for Alpha
> systems and apparently we've all

The problem isn't so simple.  Digital had a huge investment in people.  Just about every 
major city had an office for hardware support, and software support.  At one time such was 
needed.  But over time the entire thing became obsolete, at least in comparison with what 
the competition was offering.  The cost of people also continued to rise.

No longer do computer manufacturers (for the most part) have local offices, and HW people 
who come out to fix problems with occiliscopes and soldering irons.

I don't have any details to back up my guesses, but I've got to think that the cost of the 
computers helped to support the local support that DEC provided.

Does Intel have local offices to support and repair their CPUs?

I have to think that one of the problems that DEC had was being able to change quickly 
enough.  There was no way to maintain some things that made DEC such a good vendor while 
the competition was lean, mean, and usually not there when you needed support.

As for the superior products, I have to agree, since I'm still running 10-20 year old 
equipment.  I feel very lucky if I get a year out of current PC power supplies.

The downside of the DEC equipment is, when it finally fails, there will not be anything 
off the shelf to replace failed pieces.  I think I've reconciled myself that some day SIMH 
will be part of my future.  But today is not that day!  :D