Ken Finney wrote:

The semiconductor industry is one of the most bizarre there is, but it
works for them. The average life cycle for an IC, from product
introduction to last time buy is something around 3 years, and most
forecasters think it will continue to decrease to between 12 and 18
months. I know of some parts that have had life cycles of less than
12 months. Welcome to the world of consumer electronics. When
a VCR manufacturer re-lays out his circuit board every two weeks
to take advantage of the lastest/greatest/lowest cost, why do
anything different?

On the other hand, you can still buy new 741 op amps, 2n series
transistors that have been in production for over 30 years, and the
venerable 555. ;-)
--


Michael A. Terrell
Central Florida

Ken Finney wrote:

The semiconductor industry is one of the most bizarre there is, but it
works for them. The average life cycle for an IC, from product
introduction to last time buy is something around 3 years, and most
forecasters think it will continue to decrease to between 12 and 18
months. I know of some parts that have had life cycles of less than
12 months. Welcome to the world of consumer electronics. When
a VCR manufacturer re-lays out his circuit board every two weeks
to take advantage of the lastest/greatest/lowest cost, why do
anything different?

On the other hand, you can still buy new 741 op amps, 2n series
transistors that have been in production for over 30 years, and the
venerable 555. ;-)
--


Michael A. Terrell
Central Florida

Egad, yes. Every year, the new TVs had an altogether new tube lineup.
The tubes were generally the same old stuff, but in new envelopes with
different pinouts, or different combinations in one envelope. All the
service shops had to buy and stock a bunch of new tubes each year. That
sort of greedy planned obsolescence was one of several reasons TV
manufacturing rapidly died out in the U.S.

Roy Lewallen, W7EL

W7TI wrote:
On Wed, 22 Oct 2003 23:40:05 GMT, "Ken Finney"
wrote:


The semiconductor industry is one of the most bizarre there is, but it
works for them.


__________________________________________________ _______

Before semis became ubiquitous, tube manufacturers did about the same
thing. Any idea how many variations there are on the good 'ol 6AU6?
I'd guess probably between 50 and 100, some pin compatible and some not,
and not one of them worked a bit better than the others. But it was a
money maker for them to keep coming out with "new" tubes that everyone
had to stock up on.

Ahhhhh, the good old days.

Egad, yes. Every year, the new TVs had an altogether new tube lineup.
The tubes were generally the same old stuff, but in new envelopes with
different pinouts, or different combinations in one envelope. All the
service shops had to buy and stock a bunch of new tubes each year. That
sort of greedy planned obsolescence was one of several reasons TV
manufacturing rapidly died out in the U.S.

Roy Lewallen, W7EL

W7TI wrote:
On Wed, 22 Oct 2003 23:40:05 GMT, "Ken Finney"
wrote:


The semiconductor industry is one of the most bizarre there is, but it
works for them.


__________________________________________________ _______

Before semis became ubiquitous, tube manufacturers did about the same
thing. Any idea how many variations there are on the good 'ol 6AU6?
I'd guess probably between 50 and 100, some pin compatible and some not,
and not one of them worked a bit better than the others. But it was a
money maker for them to keep coming out with "new" tubes that everyone
had to stock up on.

Ahhhhh, the good old days.

And you can still buy nice new production 6L6 vacuum tubes (and a host of
others).

73 de Steve KE4OH

"Michael A. Terrell" wrote:


On the other hand, you can still buy new 741 op amps, 2n series
transistors that have been in production for over 30 years, and the
venerable 555. ;-)
--

Michael A. Terrell
Central Florida

And you can still buy nice new production 6L6 vacuum tubes (and a host of
others).

73 de Steve KE4OH

"Michael A. Terrell" wrote:


On the other hand, you can still buy new 741 op amps, 2n series
transistors that have been in production for over 30 years, and the
venerable 555. ;-)
--

Michael A. Terrell
Central Florida

"Clifton T. Sharp Jr." wrote in message ...
I can see where some didn't sell well enough to warrant much more than
an occasional run of a hundred thousand or so. But hell, the other day
I found a tube of zero-crossing switch ICs in storage and Googled on
the part number, and it looks like there's enough demand for these
things that I could get well over $600 for the tube!

Assuming you could find the buyers. Those guys selling them for Big
Buck$ (and we're both making the assumption that they are selling...
we don't actually know that!) probably wouldn't offer you a dime for your
tube of 'em.

Tim.

"Clifton T. Sharp Jr." wrote in message ...
I can see where some didn't sell well enough to warrant much more than
an occasional run of a hundred thousand or so. But hell, the other day
I found a tube of zero-crossing switch ICs in storage and Googled on
the part number, and it looks like there's enough demand for these
things that I could get well over $600 for the tube!

Assuming you could find the buyers. Those guys selling them for Big
Buck$ (and we're both making the assumption that they are selling...
we don't actually know that!) probably wouldn't offer you a dime for your
tube of 'em.

Tim.

In article , Roy Lewallen
writes:

Egad, yes. Every year, the new TVs had an altogether new tube lineup.
The tubes were generally the same old stuff, but in new envelopes with
different pinouts, or different combinations in one envelope. All the
service shops had to buy and stock a bunch of new tubes each year. That
sort of greedy planned obsolescence was one of several reasons TV
manufacturing rapidly died out in the U.S.

Not quite that, Roy. Off-shore production could do it cheaper.

29 years ago an in-house RCA publication announced that all
black-and-white RCA television sets would be made off-shore
while the Indianapolis, Indiana, complex continued with color
TV receivers. I was working for RCA in Van Nuys, CA, at the
time and was considering buying one through the company
store to save me money.

Back then the TV sets were still using tubes, still had the
rotating turret tuners for the low band, few manufacturers
offered remote controls. "Greedy planned obsolescence?"
No, just a lot of competition. Competition drove pricing and
low pricing required significant design changes like all series-
strung tube filaments to get rid of the power transformer.

The old RCA Indianapolis TV works is still operating, still uses
the RCA logo even though it is now owned by Thomson-CSF.
[or did it change hands again?]

So, three decades later where are all the other U.S. TV set
factories? Check out Circuit City, Best Buy, Wal-Mart,
K-Mart, Lowes, etc., and see where they are made NOW.
Back in 1958 Radio and Television News magazine had a
special edition on TV and included a representative listing of
color TV sets, all American made, all the cheap ones costing
about $500 in 1958 dollars. Nowadays an equivalent size
display color TV, plus remote control, plus PLL electronic
tuning for VHF through UHF channels, plus built-in captioning,
plus full sweep AFC, plus on-screen setting, plus a clock,
costs less than $300 retail in 2003 dollars...those are all
off-shore built, says so on their back panels.

For that matter, what happened to all those famous U. S.
makers of tube-type ham radios? Like Hallicrafters, National
Radio, RME, Collins Radio (Collins still alive but left the ham
market quite some time ago), Hammarlund.

"Mankind invented language to satisfy his need to complain"
--- Anonymous

Len Anderson
retired (from regular hours) electronic engineer person

In article , Roy Lewallen
writes:

Egad, yes. Every year, the new TVs had an altogether new tube lineup.
The tubes were generally the same old stuff, but in new envelopes with
different pinouts, or different combinations in one envelope. All the
service shops had to buy and stock a bunch of new tubes each year. That
sort of greedy planned obsolescence was one of several reasons TV
manufacturing rapidly died out in the U.S.

Not quite that, Roy. Off-shore production could do it cheaper.

29 years ago an in-house RCA publication announced that all
black-and-white RCA television sets would be made off-shore
while the Indianapolis, Indiana, complex continued with color
TV receivers. I was working for RCA in Van Nuys, CA, at the
time and was considering buying one through the company
store to save me money.

Back then the TV sets were still using tubes, still had the
rotating turret tuners for the low band, few manufacturers
offered remote controls. "Greedy planned obsolescence?"
No, just a lot of competition. Competition drove pricing and
low pricing required significant design changes like all series-
strung tube filaments to get rid of the power transformer.

The old RCA Indianapolis TV works is still operating, still uses
the RCA logo even though it is now owned by Thomson-CSF.
[or did it change hands again?]

So, three decades later where are all the other U.S. TV set
factories? Check out Circuit City, Best Buy, Wal-Mart,
K-Mart, Lowes, etc., and see where they are made NOW.
Back in 1958 Radio and Television News magazine had a
special edition on TV and included a representative listing of
color TV sets, all American made, all the cheap ones costing
about $500 in 1958 dollars. Nowadays an equivalent size
display color TV, plus remote control, plus PLL electronic
tuning for VHF through UHF channels, plus built-in captioning,
plus full sweep AFC, plus on-screen setting, plus a clock,
costs less than $300 retail in 2003 dollars...those are all
off-shore built, says so on their back panels.

For that matter, what happened to all those famous U. S.
makers of tube-type ham radios? Like Hallicrafters, National
Radio, RME, Collins Radio (Collins still alive but left the ham
market quite some time ago), Hammarlund.

"Mankind invented language to satisfy his need to complain"
--- Anonymous

Len Anderson
retired (from regular hours) electronic engineer person