NCD TERMINALS

[Brett Wynkoop]

In article <95673 at pyramid.pyramid.com> csg at pyramid.pyramid.com (Carl S. Gutekunst) writes:
>
>I was just having a fascinating discussion with one of my manufacturers sales-
>reps on the pricing and manufacturing quality of X servers. He pointed out
>that to build a 80386 PC X server you have to spend something around $10,000;
>yet X server "terminals" are selling around $2000. His feeling was that the
>X server vendors were convinced that they had to compete with the mainstream
>"dumb" terminal market, and had hence reduced costs to the point that quality
>was hurt. But on the other hand, how much are you willing to spend per desk? 
>Most companies I've ever seen go apoplectic at the suggestion of spending over
>$2000 for a "terminal," regardless of how much productivity they might gain.

It is cheaper to put together a good quality 680x0 system with a small
amount of rom than it is to put together an 80386 system that can do stand
alone computing.  Must have more software/hardware in the 386 box for it to be
a user changeabel computer.  Another case in point most car computers are
6809, or 680x0 machines with the os and applications in rom.  Very little
i/o hardware needed.  very little mem needed.  No drives.  that all adds up
to cheaper.  Lets face it an X terminal only needs to be able to do certain
things.  A 386 computer must have much more in it cause the user may want
to do something else with it in the future.  (Read as it is not a 1 trick
poney).




>
>>When I called RTOC they wanted the serial number of my 98x before they would
>>talk to me.
>
>Of course. That's how they locate your database entry so they can report that
>you had a problem. (The company really does keep track of those statistics.)
>Also can verify that you bought the terminal from Pyramid.
>

Does this mean that Pyramid will not sell NCD terminals to anyone who has
not bought a system? (this is not retorical I am realy curious)

>Did someone from RTOC contact you stating when you would get a replacement? If
>not, then someone may well have dropped the ball, or maybe you are just diffi-
>cult to reach by phone. Did you call and ask RTOC when it was going to be
>shipped? It could be that Pyramid is having trouble getting the terminals from
>NCD, although one would hope that priority would be given to existing custo-
>mers with dead terminals, over new customers with no machines or terminals....
>
>As I've said before, this is the sort of problem you should escalate within
>RTOC. Posting to the net may relieve frustration, but it will do nothing to
>fix your problem. (I'm in R&D, and just read the net for funsies. The company
>disavows knowledge of anything I say here, although my VP will call me out on
>the carpet if I say something controversial anyway. :-))
>
><csg>

Not even my on site pyramid tech could get a terminal out of corprate.
Everyone and his brother as far as I could tell had been informed.  Two
days after my posting I got a new terminal.  I also met some other Pyramid
people who expressed concern and explained to me how to get help when all
else seems to have failed.  My thanks to the folks in the NYC pyramid
office.


A happy end to a sad story.

-Brett