obsolescence (was Re: [sdiy] "Curtis" filter in Prophet 8)

[Rainer Buchty]

On Thu, 23 Jul 2009, Tom Wiltshire wrote:

> The DX7 (for example) includes a few Yamaha custom chips which have 
> been discussed here before. Although they'd be impossible to replace, 
> there's still a good number of DX7s still running after 20+ years. 

Plus, the DX7 is emulated quite well. If *hardware* dies, there's at 
least a proper migration path to save the *sound*.

I'd be rather sad, though, if any of my Kawai K3s would die, or the 
Casio CZ.

> This is a different thing to choosing a part that is deliberately 
> under-specified, knowing that it will then cause the unit to fail 
> around 6 minutes after the warranty runs out...

Still, it is annoying if you have an otherwise perfectly working unit 
which has one bogged chip which you can't replace due to 
under-specification, although you very well notice that it would take 
only a couple of lines of assembly code or VHDL.

In that case, your only hope is to either find a working unit to probe 
and/or getting all knowledge from disassembling the OS (assuming that 
you can read it out at all).

Rainer