Hi To some extent, companies are acquired for their heritage / IP. That can give a pretty strong push towards hanging on to all the old files and designs. Certainly that’s been the case with Vectron (and with McCoy, Piezo, Ovenair, Telequartz, Oscillatek, ….) through multiple passes at this.
Bob > On Oct 28, 2017, at 11:51 AM, jimlux <[email protected]> wrote: > > On 10/28/17 6:19 AM, Bob kb8tq wrote: >> Hi >> In terms of what Vectron actually manufacturers, there isn’t a *lot* of >> overlap >> with Microsemi. Compared to a a lot of possible matchups this one does not >> have to many things to work out. They both do a bit in space and they both >> do GPSDO’s. Past that, the other stuff is not in markets or technologies >> that overlap. > > one concern would be if there's a desire to consolidate or move manufacturing > - I'm thinking here of the Symmetricom CSAC vs MicroSemi CSAC story. > > I'm in the space business for the most part, and there's great emphasis on > Heritage - we bought Part XYZ from Company ABC for the Ranger mission to the > moon and it worked in 1967, so lets just keep using it. While I'm not a huge > fan of the value of heritage (I think it's often a "you can't go wrong buying > IBM" kind of strategy to reduce the number of questions in design reviews) - > when it does exist, it's "XYZ people" not "released drawing number in XYZ's > library" that gives you the desired product. > > > The other concern about acquisitions in general (I don't know if that's an > issue here) is that there tends to be a "cleaning out of old files and > websites" as part of the process - documentation, data sheets, etc. for "not > in the current product line" often disappears. > > For those of us who tend to use legacy, older products, perhaps spares or > surplus (time-nuts list members, and flight hardware designers alike), this > can present a problem. (Because *we* are also faced with pressure to dispose > of all that old paper and records, either from cohabitants or managers). > This is particularly the case when we're building up a breadboard or > demonstration - I've built an awful lot of stuff at JPL using spare parts and > components with date codes in the 60s and 70s - it's not like a 2-4 GHz > directional coupler made in 1964 works any different from one made in 2014. > > Of course, the lack of data sheets for *semiconductor* modules and parts from > the 1980s and 1990s is probably a boon in the long run, although a pain in > the short run. Amplifiers, mixers, etc. are all a LOT better today (in > general) than they were 20-30 years ago. (Of course, I *do* still have a > bunch of WJ parts sitting around for breadboarding) > > > _______________________________________________ > time-nuts mailing list -- [email protected] > To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts > and follow the instructions there. _______________________________________________ time-nuts mailing list -- [email protected] To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.
