Another example I can think of is where you have a piece of test equipment whose operation depends upon software for a computer that is no longer generally available. The Biomation CLAS 4000 logic analyzer, for example, is a SCSI device whose user interface runs on a 68000 Macintosh. Firmware/software for test equipment is one area in particular that points out the problem of devices becoming boat anchors because the code to control them wasn't preserved with the device. The trend in the past 10 years to produce subscription devices that depend on a host run by a company that no longer exists (Richochet, Catapult, Kerbango, ...) is another annoyance.