Re: Future releases and 1 MB RAM

Lowell J. Gray (ljg@shore.net)
Tue, 6 May 1997 19:26:39 -0400 (EDT)

As previously written by Kenning, Mike...
>
> Most customers will not require every new feature which may be included
> in code-bloated future releases. I suggest that Livingston put some very
> serious effort into modularizing or optimizing their code to allow
> typical configurations to fit in a 1 MB unit and still stay current.
> You are about to turn every 1 MB PM-2E you ever sold into a dinosaur
> (and there must be a LOT of them), forcing your customers to decide
> whether they should:
>
> 1) upgrade the memory - a hassle if you have more than a few units.
> 2) run old code releases - and live with a mix of releases and
> features/bugs if you buy new Livingston gear like the PM3, possibly
> causing Radius and other support complications.
> 3) go out and buy all new equipment.
>
> While it may not be much work for a small customer to choose option 1,
> for a big customer both option 1 and 2 are enough of a pain to force
> serious consideration of option 3, and anytime you force a customer to
> contemplate option 3 you risk losing the business.

Here's a data point for you to consider:

We just upgraded 25 of our PM2E30 to 4MB each. Cost for RAM = $31.00
per unit. Labor: 5 minutes per unit. The engineering design of the PM2Es is
excellent. Power off. One screw and the cover slides forward and off to
expose the SIMM slots at the front. No need to uncable anything. Swap
the SIMMs, put back the cover. Power on. Done.

- Lowell

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