Comment by pjc50
1 hour ago
To add to this: the downstream customers also hate change, just as much as people hate Windows updates. They much prefer being able to buy the same chip for 10 years.
(here at Medium-Size-Fabless-Semi-Inc, I'm in the middle of revving a bunch of parts that are about 10 years old, not because we want to add new features to them but because the process node is so obsolete it's becoming difficult to fab. Yes, they're getting new features, but that's not the primary driver of business)
On the other hand, because parts are physical objects, you can charge money for them. Piracy is .. not nonexistant (ask FTDI) but not a major concern.
There are some interesting corners for rapid-rev electronics, but there's a decision tree:
- can I do this with a microcontroller?
- if not, how about an FPGA?
- ok, there really is no alternative to ASIC, is the market size enough to support that?
Your perspective is much more refined than mine, and I'm learning a lot from it. You come across as a senior programmer in the exact same industrial equipment field as me. Thank you for taking the time to comment
I find it ironic how different the culture is between software and hardware people. This makes me very happy about my decision of going into software