On Apr 5, 2006, at 6:28 AM, Xiaofan Chen wrote:

> In our experience, pre-programming is in generall cheaper than
> ICSP for almost all quantities (a few 100 to 150kpcs per year)
> in the typical manufacturing setup. But this is calculated in
> Singapore where labor cost is not low at all (about half of USA).
> If it is in China maybe Olin's calculation is correct.
>
Olin is doing ICSP as part of a "test" step that is happening
anyway; if you don't have as significant a test setup as he
does, or don't have it set up to do ICSP in the same fixture,
your numbers will come out different...

I can see Olin's point, but I think an awful lot of products
are tested without "fixtures" of any kind; someone turns it
on and confirms that the power-on diagnostics run and the
expected power-on behavior occurs, and it ships...  I can
see it depending a lot on the electrical complexity of the
product; something like the proprog has a lot of not-easily
visible things you can measure.  A more consumer-oriented
product might not...

BillW
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