As I recall, the turn around time was not that long.

I just think setting up a seperate station/line for
programming adds a lot of process and thus cost and
complexity (manufacturing and organization).  If you
are doing small quantities and the price can bear the
cost it makes some sense for quick one-offs for
specific customers.  I'd recommend against making it
the standard manufacturing approach, though. 

ICSP is a good thing to build in anyway.  Field
upgrade is a seperate issue - its irrelevent to when
the chip gets initially programmed.  There are also
lots of issues of how the upgrade gets done but that
subject of a different discussion. 

--- Olin Lathrop <olin_piclist@embedinc.com> wrote:
> phil B wrote:
> > Why not just use a service?  I know Digi Key will
> > preprogram for fairly cheap if you buy from them. 
> I
> > looked into this about 6 months ago - the minimums
> > were pretty small and prices reasonable.
> 
> I see a lot more last minute in-circuit programming
> than I did a few years
> ago.  Especially with surface mount chips, you want
> everything assembled by
> a place that does mostly that.  Often new firmware
> versions come out
> regularly, so with ICSP the latest can be programmed
> at final test and
> calibration time.  ICSP capability also gives a
> potential path for field
> upgrades.
> 
> 
>
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