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=2.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_50,INVALID_MSGID, REPLYTO_WITHOUT_TO_CC autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: f849b,857262ad7d0ad537 X-Google-Attributes: gidf849b,public X-Google-Thread: 1014db,1904a679c27288b6 X-Google-Attributes: gid1014db,public X-Google-Thread: 1025b4,1904a679c27288b6 X-Google-Attributes: gid1025b4,public X-Google-Thread: 103376,c2f4cdd9ccfb8ede X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public From: Marin David Condic Subject: Re: How many different processors do you use? Date: 1999/06/28 Message-ID: <37777DAC.68C697DD@pwfl.com>#1/1 X-Deja-AN: 494769484 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: condicma@bogon.pwfl.com References: <7j1qng$4fp$1@nnrp1.deja.com> <37576ded.26569745@news.mpx.com.au> <7j8ac0$eah$1@uranium.btinternet.com> <7jh07e$tek$1@nnrp1.deja.com> <7jhp34$6f1$1@nnrp1.deja.com> <7jjij7$qci$1@nnrp1.deja.com> <7jl9n3$n9j$1@pegasus.csx.cam.ac.uk> <19990610.7A689D8.FF4B@mojaveg.ridgecrest.ca.us> <7jtgbj$8ct$1@nnrp1.deja.com> <7l02ro$52i$1@nnrp1.deja.com> <37739338.761297047@news.bellglobal.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Organization: Pratt & Whitney Mime-Version: 1.0 Reply-To: diespammer@pwfl.com Newsgroups: comp.arch.embedded,comp.lang.ada,comp.lang.c,gnu.misc.discuss Date: 1999-06-28T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: Lew Pitcher wrote: > > Could not the "Defense Contractor" billing mindset also figure into this? > Since Ada was/is the required language for DOD work, it might suffer from > the same inflationary pricing that introduced multi-hundred dollar toilet seats > to the DOD. > This is a bit of a myth. The legendary $400 hammers come not from unscrupulous defense contractors, but rather as a consequence of the DoD's own accounting rules. Say you contract with the DoD to deliver 25 M1 Abrahms tanks. In the contract will be certain things besides the tanks themselves. Service manuals, test equipment, maintenance kits (complete with hammers! :-) training, support, etc. A whole laundry list of line items. Now, you have your developmental costs (engineering) and your manufacturing costs. The hammer may have been manufactured or purchased at a cost of $5.00, but the accounting rules say you have to distribute that huge engineering cost across all of the deliverables. So $5.00 in cost plus markup *plus* development cost for the whole package equals $400. It makes for interesting TV with Mike Wallace on 60 Minutes, or for Senators to pontificate on in front of the cameras, but it is a huge distortion of the truth, bordering on calumny. Trust me. We in the defense contracting business are *not* driving around in limos and sucking up gravy on $600 coffee pots and such. We get squeezed every bit as hard as our commercial counterparts - sometimes even harder because we have one and only one customer who, if he doesn't like the price and takes a hike, we're out of work. MDC -- Marin David Condic Real Time & Embedded Systems, Propulsion Systems Analysis United Technologies, Pratt & Whitney, Large Military Engines M/S 731-95, P.O.B. 109600, West Palm Beach, FL, 33410-9600 ***To reply, remove "bogon" from the domain name.*** Visit my web page at: http://www.mcondic.com/