[pjc50]

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?

[jdw64]

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

[joe_mamba]

>To add to this: the downstream customers also hate change,

Everyone hates change, when the fallout of the outcome of the change is on THEM specifically and impacts their career. That's why SW people keep picking Oracle, Microsoft, Google, etc

[habinero]

Nobody picks Oracle.

[joe_mamba]

Nobody = only you and your bubble?

That's how Larry Ellison is one of the richest people in the world? Because nobody ever buys Oracle, except every major bank, and enterprise.

From the same cinematic universe where nobody ever picks Windows, it just magically ends up everywhere through nobody's decision.

I wish HN would look outside their bubble for 3 seconds.

[joe_mamba]

[flagged]

[alefalfa]

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

[nickff]

What is ironic about this? I am not trying to be difficult, I just don't understand.

There is definitely a huge gap, where hardware people spend a great deal of time creating and testing things, that they then want to manufacture for long enough to pay it back. It seems like on the (web) software side, people want to try something out (maybe over a weekend), launch it quickly, then shut it down when they figure out it's not going anywhere (the Google approach).

[idiotsecant]

Yes, the feeling is apparently mutual based on this post