From: mckeeveb@monashee.sfu.ca (Gumby - The unknown user)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.modems
Subject: Re: Upgrading a ZyXEL 1496E to an E+
Date: 10 Jan 93 09:09:15 GMT
Organization: Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, B.C., Canada

mju@mudos.ann-arbor.mi.us (Marc Unangst) writes:

>The question isn't whether it's possible or impossible.  The question
>really is whether it's PRACTICAL.  Just as it isn't practical to
>upgrade your 286 to a 486 without getting a new motherboard, my
>feeling is that it isn't practical to upgrade your E to an E+.  Sure,
>you could pull out your 'scope and your soldering iron and, with
>several hours' work, replace the appropriate parts in an E to turn it
>into an E+.  But most of us consider our time somewhat valuable.  In
>the time it would take you to make the modification, you could
>probably go out and earn the difference between the cost of a DIY
>upgrade and the cost of a new E+.  Assuming, of course, you are the
>sort of person with the requisite skills to actually perform the DIY
>upgrade.

Um, hate to interrupt.. but the innards of the new E's and E+'s are identical.
Some of the older ones may actually have slower processors, but the only other
separating factor we can find is that E+'s always have the 1992 DSP RAM board
where E's *MAY* have the older/smaller 1990 model.

>What's more, if you buy an E+, you can then sell your E to someone
>else and recover part of the cost of the upgrade.  And you end up with
>a new modem that still has the 5-year warranty.  If you perform the
>DIY upgrade, you will definitely void your warranty.

Then again, you'd expect that people who are willing to preform such an
upgrade to either to the maintenace themselves, or revert the modem and send
it back in it's original condition.

>This is pretty much the same reason that ZyXEL/Zero One doesn't offer
>an upgrade.  The "upgrade" would probably consist of taking out your E
>board and putting in an E+ board.  If you're going to replace the
>whole innards of the modem, you might as well replace the shell and
>the power supply and end up with an entire new modem, instead of
>something as useless as a bare E board.

The main reason is marketing.

If you don't believe me, look at the auto market.  They sell new cars with
a CellPhone transciever unit already installed and leave the handset as an
$800 option for those people "who are willing to pay more".  All it is is
selling the same product with reduced features at a lower price "because
someone will want to pay less to get less" or vice versa.

>>(you could sell the developer's kit with an upgraded DSP memory
>>piggyback board, and then once someone has written code for whatever
>>feature, you could package EPROMS with DSP boards and sell those as
>>upgrades...  possibilities are endless..)

>Except from what Tyrone and others have said, the differences aren't
>confined to just the piggyback DSP memory card.  A faster 68000 is
>used (although I'm not too pleased with the fact that they're running
>a 16MHz 68000 at 20MHz...), as well as a faster DSP.  This is *not* a
>trivial, swap-a-few-socketed-chips upgrade, kids.

On all the units made after the E+ was released, there is a jumper on the
main board to select processor speed.  There really is no difference.

-- 
    Rob McKeever  VE7ICJ  rmckeeve@sfu.ca  mckeeveb@sfu.ca  604-291-0457
"Do you know what standards are?  They're career paths for people who don't
 want to work!" - John Parkinson, Ernst & Young at the BCDMA Conference '92
       -*-          Standard Disclaimers should be adequate        -*-