We all know that engineers have the most fun when they get to design a brand new product. But here at Avalon, we know what matters at the bank. Right now, you need to keep the product you have going out the door. That project back in the lab isn’t paying the bills yet. So what happens when a critical part in your existing product goes obsolete? Do you delay new development to fix up the old product? Avalon Engineering can help you with this dilemma. Let Avalon work on keeping production moving ahead while you let your R&D team keep new product development moving ahead.
Avalon Engineering will be happy to address continuation engineering issues such as component obsolescence, reliability issues, technology upgrades, and product design enhancements. If a microprocessor part is becoming obsolete, there is often a similar part that will do the same job with only a new board layout and possibly very minor software changes.
Sometimes new market requirements don’t require an entirely new product. If you have a product with an RS-232 serial port and the market says you would do better with Ethernet or USB, or even wireless, there is a very good chance that Avalon can design in that interface in a way that is transparent to the original product design. By applying principles of both value engineering and continuation engineering, Avalon Engineering can even give your product a brand new appearance, at lower cost, while preserving your investment in the proprietary technology of your existing product.
This looks like just a couple of connectors. The connector on the right is indeed just a connector, the standard 9-pin D-sub connector most commonly recognized as the serial port on a PC. The RJ-45 "connector" on the left is more than a connector. It also houses a 32-bit ARM7 microprocessor, 8MB DRAM, 2MB Flash, and a 100BaseT Ethernet controller. If you've got room for a serial port, you've got room for a network connection. Replacing the serial port with an Ethernet port and network connectivity or embedded web server can even be transparent to the original design. The cost per unit is only $50 in low volume.
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