On Sun, 29 Feb 2004 17:53:42 -0500, Joe Wood wrote:

My biggest problem is the cost involved. To get your first product on the
market, you have to buy the standard documents and test suites and apply for
a vendor- and product ID. This will cost $10,500 total, quite a hurdle for
small manufacturers.

I can't agree. Hardware is cheap to develop relative to software. A
handful of hardware engineers can keep armies of software developers
busy indefinately. This is epecially true for low run items like boat
and ship electronics.

Hmm, we are just about to get IEC 60945 certification for some hardware we
designed for boats - 25,000 UK pounds to perform the tests!

And then we have to get it approved by DNV, Lloyds, ABS, etc., at another
US$25k!

Dave