Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2005/12/06

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Subject: [Leica] Digital Leica "M"
From: Grduprey at aol.com (Grduprey@aol.com)
Date: Tue Dec 6 22:15:47 2005

In a message dated 12/6/2005 12:46:14 PM Central Standard Time, 
macdude4@bellsouth.net writes:
If I were Leica I would have designed the Digital M so that it could  
be upgraded. That way when the parts don?t exist to repair it Leica  
could simply upgrade it.


Mark,

This logic does not work in the world of modern electronics.  New ic chips 
almost never use the same size die and pin out patterns, so drop in 
replacement 
electronics just does not work.  I see this every day at work where parts 
become obsolete for a system which has been under production for a long 
period.  
To keep the system operating using replacement pats will require either a 
daughter board or even redeisgn of a circuit board.  To keep this redesign 
at a 
minimum, we purchase approximately 10 years worth of parts as spares for 
specialized ic's.  Upgrades always require new board designs, as the current 
ic 
circuits hardly ever use the same size package and pinouts funcionally.

gene