From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.3 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,INVALID_MSGID, LOTS_OF_MONEY autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,885dab3998d28a4 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public From: Ken Garlington Subject: Re: System Engineering (was Re: Ariane 5 failure) Date: 1996/10/04 Message-ID: <325553C5.E2B@lmtas.lmco.com>#1/1 X-Deja-AN: 187628578 references: <96100112290401@psavax.pwfl.com> <32531A6F.6EDB@dynamite.com.au> <3252B46C.5E9D@lmtas.lmco.com> content-type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii organization: Lockheed Martin Tactical Aircraft Systems mime-version: 1.0 newsgroups: comp.lang.ada x-mailer: Mozilla 2.02 (Macintosh; I; 68K) Date: 1996-10-04T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: Matthew Heaney wrote: > > It's never cost effective to skimp on hardware if it means human > programmers have to write more complex software. Never say never! Take an example of building, say, 1,000 units of some widget containing 1,500 source lines of code. For ease of calculation, assume $100/workerhour, 150 w-hours/w-month. 1. Buy a CPU at $50/unit which will do the job, but will cause the software development team to spend 10 w-months to complete the task, and will cause the post-deployment cost to be 2x the development cost. 10 w-months to complete the original development is $100 x 150 x 10 = $150,000. Maintenance is $300,000. Total software cost per unit (amortized over several years, possibly, for the maintenance): $450/unit. 2. Buy a CPU at $300/unit which will do the job, and because it's so modern, the software development team only needs 5 w-months to complete the task, and the post-deployment cost is only 1x the development cost. In other words, the software development time is cut in half (the standard promise for such improvements). So, software cost: $225/unit. Assuming I did my math right, I'd be buying some cheap hardware right about now... -- LMTAS - "Our Brand Means Quality" For more info, see http://www.lmtas.com or http://www.lmco.com