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A comment on Realtek RTL836x series of Ethernet switch ICs has a 8051 hidden inside. Parent comment

Re:Realtek RTL836x series of Ethernet switch ICs has a 8051 ... by zxcvbn4038 on Sunday September 22, 2019 @11:25AM (#21041771)
Back in the day my father was a service tech for NCR retail systems. For one of the lines they shipped out every system fully loaded with ram and disk - however how much their customers got to use depended on jumper configurations which the service techs would set and verify. I think IBM does the same thing with their mainframes - they ship out fully loaded but you can only use what you pay for, the rest is used as hot stand-by for hardware failures.
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Re:Realtek RTL836x series of Ethernet switch ICs has a 8051 ... by hobojones on Sunday September 22, 2019 @02:40PM (#21043069)
The company I now work for does something similar. We sell our product at what is essentially max capacity, capping memory/disk space/CPU per the contract. When the customer needs the extra capacity or wishes to upgrade, all that’s required is some settings changes and a restart.
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Re:Realtek RTL836x series of Ethernet switch ICs has a 8051 ... by alfiedotwtf on Sunday September 22, 2019 @06:07PM (#21044285)
I remember someone telling me that the printer in my primary school was only a black printer. When they wanted to upgrade to colour, a technician came down and flipped a dip switch
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Re:Realtek RTL836x series of Ethernet switch ICs has a 8051 ... by mehhh on Sunday September 22, 2019 @11:54AM (#21041936)
Was this during NCR's bad years where AT&T ran the business into the ground?

I don't think NCR really recovered till the NCR 7878 came out, setting the bar for a robust scale/scanner

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Re:Realtek RTL836x series of Ethernet switch ICs has a 8051 ... by hobojones on Sunday September 22, 2019 @01:54PM (#21042780)
Former NCR tech here. I can confirm the parent’s comment - we’d routinely have to validate/ensure jumpers based on entitlement. As for recovery, I worked for NCR once they regained their independence from ATT and they were still running themselves into the ground. By the time I left (around the era of the 7878) things improved slightly.
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Re:Realtek RTL836x series of Ethernet switch ICs has a 8051 ... by mehhh on Sunday September 22, 2019 @08:11PM (#21044905)
NCR seems to be able to survive, but I wonder if the non-Windows point of sale systems will finish eating the low & midrange business.

My old employer is prepping for the shift with their software vendor currently, should allow for a much longer period of support & remote debugging...

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