To the best of my knowledge, software crippling has been used for years -
about a decade. It was used to turn a 928 into a 918 (48 to 34-equivalent
MHz), a 995/100 into a 991, a 979/100 into a 929/030, etc. The first
instance of software crippling I can remember was turning a 992 into a 990,
and that was a decade ago. The intended goal at the time was the same as
nowadays, i.e. provide lower pricing points at lower performance thruputs,
i.e. maintain the (then current) performance/price ratio.

However, the perceived impact by users at the time was different, and even
minimal. That may or may not have to do with the 11/14 announcement.

Or was HP already trying to kill its own baby 10 years ago ?

Christian Lheureux
Responsable du Département Systèmes et Réseaux / Head of Systems and
Networks Department
APPIC R.H.
business partner hp invent
Tel : +33-1-69-80-97-22   /   Fax : +33-1-69-80-97-14 / e-mail :
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AIM nickname : MPE Evangelist
"Le Groupe APPIC recrute, contactez nous !"



> -----Message d'origine-----
> De : HP-3000 Systems Discussion [mailto:[log in to unmask]]De la
> part de John R. Wolff
> Envoyé : vendredi 6 septembre 2002 02:47
> À : [log in to unmask]
> Objet : Re: [HP3000-L] HP Press Release about hp3000
>
>
> On Thu, 5 Sep 2002 17:13:45 -0700, John Clogg
> <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> >>My point is that HP decided (for reasons that may or may
> not be valid) to
> >sell a box at this performance point.  If they had
> accomplished that level
> >of performance by building hardware that was actually that
> slow, no one
> >would be complaining.  (They might not buy the machine, but
> they wouldn't
> >complain about its existence.)  Knowing that the box is
> capable of better
> >performance seems to be the issue that annoys everyone.  My
> opinion, on the
> >other hand, is that if HP wants to sell a box at performance
> point X, and
> >sell it for price Y, it really doesn't matter how they accomplish it,
> >unless the choice they made caused the box to be more expensive.  I
> >believe HP's choice to use software crippling actually kept
> costs down,
> >because they didn't have to design multiple hardware platforms.
>
> OK, for sake of argument let's say that the machine is really
> effectively
> 110MHz out of a possible 440MHz. (I wonder what measurement
> method HP used
> vs. Gavin's estimate?)  Why is a 110MHz performance point so
> important when
> current technology is in the 400 to 700 MHz range?  This
> means that the A-
> class is really just a virtual 929, so why spend money to
> upgrade to it
> instead of buying a used 9x9?  Heck, buy 2 or 3 used boxes
> for the price of
> the new one.  No wonder HP thinks the customers have
> abandoned them for the
> used market  --  HP has given them every incentive to do so.
> After all, we
> customers are in business too to make (save) money, not just HP.
>
> As you point out, it makes no difference what method is used
> to provide
> inferior performance, it just matters that they did.  In
> other words, the
> technology provided is obsolete from day 1.  If they had come
> up with a
> 110MHz processor it would still be obsolete and the result
> would be the
> same.  So the real problem is with the effective speed and
> not so much the
> method of implementation.
>
> I agree that the software solution is cheap to do, but it is
> also the most
> irritating to the customers (does it matter what customers think?)  --
> customers which HP is supposedly trying to help with a final
> performance
> boost.  I think they are really worried that they might boost
> the customers
> to far and delay prospects for migration to HP9000's.  This
> is a simple
> stick and carrot approach to marketing strategy, and has
> nothing to do with
> saving customers any money.
>
> Give me a break HP.
>
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