DH>> There are NVRAM types offering a write life of 5000 or so.  These are 
DH>> fairly elderly, and by now probably relatively cheap. 
(Translate = better 
DH>> profits for the gougers.  We are beginning to know who those are.)
DH>> these have made it into modems as yet.  There was, at one time,
a model or 
DH>> two using battery backed CMOS RAM to get around this limitation.

LE> Assuming you count NetComm under the heading of gougers, and I think that's 
LE> who you were referring to, how do your reconcile that with the fact that 
LE> the SmartModems since God-knows-when (maybe the AutoModems too, I don't 
LE> remember) have used CMOS backed-up RAM?

Knowing the mob, I account that the costs of cheap CMOS + cheap battery
amounted to a significant profit margin over even the cheaper NVRAMs.

The difference between the Smartmodem and the Automodem at one stage WAS
the presence of semi-permanent config information.  This may have crept
downmarket, probably would have.

Regards,
Dave Hatch.

--- Msgedsq 3.20