Gerhard Fiedler wrote:
>
> At 02:43 PM 28-08-97 -0400, Walter Banks wrote:
> >It is interesting that technology is only a small part of the
> >equation and information and availability is quite a large part.
>
> That's really obvious -- if still somebody doesn't take into account that
> in order to consider buying something somebody first has to know that he
> will be able to buy it when he needs it (availability), and that in order
> to be able to include anything in a design one has to have decent
> information on it: I don't know why they would be in business anyway. (If
> so, probably because of government deals: they have no urgent needs, and
> don't need to know exactly how the thing works :-)

In the 'old' days of electronics design, an engineer didn't even
consider using a part if it was single-sourced.  This was when the rule
of thumb was "if it takes more than 20 ICs, use a micro."  At least then
you could buy 4000 and 54/74 parts from at least half a dozen reliable
manufacturers.  Now I find myself skating the issue when my boss says
"If Microchip goes out of business, so do we, huh?".  The connotation of
availability appears to have changed over the years.  I'll be happy when
there's a higher availability of PIC-compatible manufacturers - not just
reliable availability from a single supplier.
-- Matt