On Thu, Mar 01, 2001 at 04:40:26PM +1100, Ken Yap ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) wrote:
> |> Cost cutting.
> |
> |buhahahaha, you gotta be kiddin`
> |a flimsy piece of sticky tape with a few numbers on it?
>
> Obviously you have no idea these things are made. The PCBs are assembled
Actually I do! The last thing I was doing at Uni was a Phd in
"Computer Systems and Electronics" and I have made so many circuit boards
that sometimes I get hold of a board and I am surprised I made that and
I have visited so many manufactures of boards that I dont even remember
their names and what they actually did.
> by machine. The surface mount compoents are deposited on the PCB, the
[snip]
> Now if you wanted to put the MAC address and bar code on a sticker,
> you'd need another machine to print and attach the sticker. When you are
No you dont, the station where the eeprom is burned can produce a sticker as
by simply attaching a little "sticker printer" to it (seen that). Considering
what this would cost divided by the amount of network cards produced you would
end up with 10c per card.
> a Taiwanese manufacturer turning out these things for $10 each (the
> other $10 goes to profit and middlemen), an extra 20c makes a
> difference. Look, some of these mfrs don't even give you a floppy, they
> expect that the driver will be already with the OS, or you get it from
> their web site.
I dont think its the guys from the production line who DONT want to do it.
I believe its that most people dont care about it anymore ...... aka PNP
I just had a look at a bunch of cheap cards (all RTL8XXX based) made in
China and Taiwan. All of them have a lot of other info like
* part number sticker
* production date sticker
* some "OK" sticker
* type sticker
* complies with .....
* batch number
but MAC address.
I have seen that info missing on some of the more expenisive (aka brand) models, too.
There are missing on all of the XIRCOM cards (I currently can only look at 3)
but that might be for security reasons.
jhs
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