MicroPDP-11/73, was Re: More mystery recycler boards - DEC, Fujitsu(??), Cipher, Emulex

[Paul Koning]

> On Sep 7, 2016, at 3:20 PM, Steven M Jones <classiccmp at crash.com> wrote:
> 
> On 09/07/16 05:02, Noel Chiappa wrote:
>> 
>> The other thing that makes no sense is that the KDJ11-B (M8190) has all that
>> extra circuitry on it to support PMI, etc - all of which is unused in the
>> 11/73 application! Why not just plug in a (presumably cheaper) M8192?
> 
> In Marketing-land, the VAXstation II RC, with epoxy in the
> factory-unused slots, makes sense...

Not just marketing.  Reusing an existing module that does more than is needed may well be the most economical option.  You balance higher per-unit cost against much lower engineering investment.  If you build a million widgets, that's probably the wrong way to go; but if it's only a few thousand it may make perfectly good sense.

	paul