[sdiy] MN3207 and MN3102 Reissues

[Cornutt, David K]

From: Scott Stites [mailto:scottnoanh at peoplepc.com]
> I just assumed.  What are the logistics of doing something like that?

I'm not the expert, but there are two things that
come to mind:

1.  Finding someone with the right process equipement for
whatever kind of fab process was used.  Now, it seems to
me that there should be a lot of older fab equipment
floating around that someone could pick up pretty cheaply
and use to go into business of reissuing older parts
(assuming that a demand exists).  But I don't know that
for sure; maybe all the fabs just scrap their old equipment
every time they cut over to a new process.

2.  Getting the masks.  First, you have to get the rights
from the design copyright holder.  The Intels and Nationals
of the world still hold rights to lots of things that are
out of production, and for some reason they often don't
seem to be very interested in licensing even though it
would be essentially free money for them.  Then there's
the practical problem of actually getting the masks in
a CAD format that is compatible.  This gets to be a problem
if you are going back further than about 1985, and it's
really a problem for pre-1975 parts that were all hand drawn.