Date: Sat, 30 Jan 1999 16:17:32 -0600 (CST) From: Kevin Day <toasty@home.dragondata.com> To: tlambert@primenet.com (Terry Lambert) Cc: patl@phoenix.volant.org, tlambert@primenet.com, hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: USB drivers Message-ID: <199901302217.QAA13588@home.dragondata.com> In-Reply-To: <199901302150.OAA20323@usr04.primenet.com> from Terry Lambert at "Jan 30, 1999 9:50:52 pm"
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> The point isn't that USB peripherals aren't more expensive. The > point is that I don't *need* all of them, so if I dike out the > stuff I don't need, and don't pay to put it back as a USB device, > then my overall cost drops. > > For example, would you buy a PC with a floppy drive today, given > a choice? The standard install media is CDROM, not floppy. You > have to actually call/send for floppies if you don't want CDROM. > > So... why are you paying for a floppy controller? > > Or would you buy a brand new machine with 4 ISA slots you're never > going to use? Any ISA slots at all? Then why pay for the interface > silicon, the support circuitry, the PC board realestate, the BIOS > code, and the card edge connectors? > Actually, no it doesn't. If you can make one massive IO chip with a floppy controller, USB controller and everything everyone else wants, the increased volume will make it cheaper than making two parts, one with Floppy/USB and one without. We're going through this now, trying to cost save on a custom motherboard. Very few people make IO chips with just the features we want, and those that do, only make them for low-pincount configurations, and charge a premium for them, because the volume isn't there. The cost for running two production lines, extra fabs, and just the overhead of having more than one SKU isn't worth it for most manufacturers. And if you think the extra gates/cells in an asic are actually costing you more for a floppy controller..? :) It also would cost us more to get a motherboard without them stuffing the USB port connector on it. The connector costs like $.15, but the costs for making a different run, different model number, etc, far exceed that, unless you're buying hundreds of thousands. So.. In some cases, if all you want is an ISA/PCI bridge, you're better off buying an ISA/PCI bridge that also has IDE, Floppy, Serial, Parallel, USB, and a bunch of other stuff, because everyone wants those features, so you can sneak in and buy a chip with high volume because it's cheap. Kevin "More serial ports than i can ever use" Day To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-hackers" in the body of the message
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