[Info-vax] Chinese Alpha?

[Paul Sture]

On Thu, 10 May 2012 13:17:04 +0000, ChrisQ wrote:

> On 05/04/12 10:27, Paul Sture wrote:
>> On Thu, 03 May 2012 12:50:38 -0400, David Froble wrote:
>>
>>> 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.
>>
>> We had monthly Preventative Maintenance on our first PDP 11/34,
>> performed by the DEC office in our neighbouring city.  We were very
>> pleased when DEC decided to change that to once every 3 months, as not
>> only was it a disruption to our work, but the system often failed a few
>> hours after a PM, sometimes as soon as the engineer had driven off.
>>
>>
> The industry has changed, in that there is no longer any need to repair
> down to component level, nor is it possible. In the days of small scale
> integration and leaded discrete components, the failed parts could be
> replaced after debugging with a 'scope. System boards are much higher
> density and surface mount technology measn that swapping the board /
> subassembly is the only way.
>
> The service process has been deskilled by low hardware costs and the
> fact that a high degree of knowledge and experience is required to debug
> hardware down to component level = expensive. It's more cost effective
> to replace the board or subassembly, than to spend hours trying to fix
> it, much as it grates my instincts of thrift.

All true.

> Local offices weren't just about servicing though, but also local lines
> of communication back to the company. Intelligence gathering for future
> product directions, customer attitudes, good will and more...

Unfortunately we have lost that.


-- 
Paul Sture