XPost: rec.audio.pro, comp.dsp   
   From: gah@ugcs.caltech.edu   
      
   In comp.dsp Arny Krueger  wrote:   
      
   (snip, I wrote)   
   >> But it is the mass production of such that makes them   
   >> affordable.   
      
   > Affordable is a relative term. For the longest time professional equipment   
   > was relatively pricey, and it was those high prices that created a market   
   > for new technology before it became truely low cost. But compared to the   
   > predecessor technology, the new technology was cost-effective, even at the   
   > higher prices.   
      
   OK, to get back to digital, I believe that the development of   
   cheap TTL chips was through the demands of the computer industry.   
      
   We got TTL chips that could build digital clocks, and other simple   
   logic devices, because industry was buying millions of them.   
   That is economy of scale, though driven by industry, not consumers.   
      
   If technology has both an industry and consumer use, the economy   
   of scale for the consumer use can easily drive the price down   
   for the industrual use.  One of the stranger ones is the adaptation   
   of the 8mm video tape to data storage.  The economy of scale from   
   the consumer end allowed for more affordable data storage than   
   systems developed only for the computer storage market.  Also, DDS   
   tape, back adapted from the audio DAT technology.   
      
   -- glen   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)