On Sun, 11 Jan 2004 08:32:58 -0500, "Ralph Mowery"
wrote:


I forgot the price but in the news paper about 10 years ago it cost the
military about $ 20 K just to get a diode that should have cost a couple of
dollars. The military was out of them and the manufacture had to make a run
of a few thousand . You just can not make one simiconductor.

It is not just a question about MAKING, the army must use MIL-SPEC
devices, and how do they go on making such.... They probably cannot
use an ordinary device for any reason - even in non-critical
applications. Take 2N525 , it is MIL-spec'ed, but most of them are
probably defective today and it has been much better devices to find
for the last 40 years

In British Telecom we had to use CV-numbered semiconductors, although
we could use normal types in the IMTR labs, but it should be
equivalent for a CV-numbered device, the only one I remember now - 25
years later is CV7127. Fortunately not so stupid in Norwegian Telecom

-jm
http://home.online.no/~la8ak/L2.htm
--
Amount of SPAM is so large that MailWasher must delete 99% of the incoming mails
Cannot check every email manually. Please use intelligent title for email.
Mails without titles or using just "hi" is deleted

In article ,
(J M Noeding) wrote:

On Sun, 11 Jan 2004 08:32:58 -0500, "Ralph Mowery"
wrote:


I forgot the price but in the news paper about 10 years ago it cost the
military about $ 20 K just to get a diode that should have cost a couple of
dollars. The military was out of them and the manufacture had to make a run
of a few thousand . You just can not make one simiconductor.

It is not just a question about MAKING, the army must use MIL-SPEC
devices, and how do they go on making such.... They probably cannot
use an ordinary device for any reason - even in non-critical
applications. Take 2N525 , it is MIL-spec'ed, but most of them are
probably defective today and it has been much better devices to find
for the last 40 years


The difference between a mil-spec'd part and a commerical part is mainly
one of documentation. A series of tests are then specified for the
completed parts to make sure they meet their specifications. The care
imposed on the manufacturing process ensures that the parts are built
correctly. It says nothing about the robustness of the design though, it
just ensures that the design parameters are met.

Al

--
There's never enough time to do it right the first time.......

In article ,
(J M Noeding) wrote:

On Sun, 11 Jan 2004 08:32:58 -0500, "Ralph Mowery"
wrote:


I forgot the price but in the news paper about 10 years ago it cost the
military about $ 20 K just to get a diode that should have cost a couple of
dollars. The military was out of them and the manufacture had to make a run
of a few thousand . You just can not make one simiconductor.

It is not just a question about MAKING, the army must use MIL-SPEC
devices, and how do they go on making such.... They probably cannot
use an ordinary device for any reason - even in non-critical
applications. Take 2N525 , it is MIL-spec'ed, but most of them are
probably defective today and it has been much better devices to find
for the last 40 years


The difference between a mil-spec'd part and a commerical part is mainly
one of documentation. A series of tests are then specified for the
completed parts to make sure they meet their specifications. The care
imposed on the manufacturing process ensures that the parts are built
correctly. It says nothing about the robustness of the design though, it
just ensures that the design parameters are met.

Al

--
There's never enough time to do it right the first time.......