Message:

<p>[QUOTE=&quot;calcol, post: 12327621, member: 77639&quot;]There would probably be little price difference in simple chips and more complex, programmable chips when bought in quantity.&nbsp; PCGS could certainly order hundreds of thousands at a time.&nbsp;&nbsp; Wouldn’t be surprised if most of the available simple chips are essentially the same internally as the more complex chips but with programmability deactivated.</p><p><br /></p><p>This is a very common practice in the electronics industry.&nbsp; For example, a brand of oscilloscopes may have a line that ranges in speed from 50 to 300 MHz.&nbsp; They are all the same internally.&nbsp; For a higher speed (and price!) model, the higher speed is activated with a code sent into the machine via a USB or JTAG port at the factory.&nbsp; If a customer buys a 50 MHz machine and decides later they want higher speed, they can pay to get a code specific for their machine that they can use for upgrading.&nbsp; The reason this system exists is that it allows for one manufacturing line and bill of materials that can make the whole model line, which reduces manufacturing costs.&nbsp; At the end of the line, the machine is quickly programmed for speed and the appropriate badge (50 MHz, 100 MHz, etc.) is slapped on the case.&nbsp; The higher speed models may sell for several times the price of the lowest speed model.</p><p><br /></p><p>Electronic forums are full of posts of hacks that supposedly can upgrade an oscilloscope for free.&nbsp; I tried one once to convert a 50 MHz scope to 100 MHz and bricked it! <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie3" alt=":(" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" />&nbsp; Lesson learned.</p><p><br /></p><p>BTW, if a NFC/RFID chip can be read by a simple reader and spits out the same info every time, that doesn’t mean it can’t do more complex tasks if interrogated by a more sophisticated reader.&nbsp; Backward compatibility is common in the electronics industry.</p><p><br /></p><p>Cal[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

Your name or email address:

Do you already have an account?

• No, create an account now.
• Yes, my password is:
• Forgot your password?

Stay logged in