Data Acquisition

I think it is the same old story everywhere in industry, It has to do with money and revenue.

You spend years developing a piece of hardware and than some clever clogs comes past and takes your idea to make their own stash on the back of your r&d.

You could say that patents and the lot should sort this out but it does not for all instances so industry is protecting themselves on a higher level and create their own language for these items to communicate with. In this way you lock customers in using your equipment and as soon as one manufacturer does it , others have to follow suit thus slowly undoing the disadvantage this might seemingly create.

Why has the industry got 2 different high def video applications is exactly the same question. Blue ray and HDDVD are direct competition but if you pay attention, the industry seems to be biting back as the consumers are more and more listened to. Some media producers have not yet made up their mind what to follow and may still go with dual sided discs which would mean the end to the debate.

Maybe the same will happen in industry network protocols. It would be a good thing as the confusion will be ended.

As stated above it is all to do with locking in customers, locking out competition, and revenue for thesuppliers.

I remember back in the early days of VCR Recorders and players.

There were 2 different standards: VHS and Betamax.

Betamax was actually mechanically and electrically superior.

Sony of Japan was crafty, and backed both technological standards.

How the VHS won the "VCR Standards war" was that the backers of VHS produced millions of movies etc, with the VHS standard, and supplied these at a loss to Video Hire Stores everywhere.

Because even in those days, consumers were not prepared to end up with an appliance which used an unpopular standard, many refused to buy VCR players, until the final standard was "decided upon".

Once there was a large public commitment to the VHS standard, and folks made their videotapes on machines hired from Video Stores, there was a large nett pool of folks committed to the VHS standard.

In that way, the Betamax system fell by the wayside, and several manufacturers lost $$$millions.

Sony Japan, however, having backed both horses in the race, ended up as a winner, just closing down their Betamax production line.

So...we do not always get the best standards - Often Branding and clever Marketing win the Standards race....

Case491 is right but, competition will not hold back in the face of nece$$ity. Otherwise, don't confuse electrical standards with protocols. One deals with physical transmission methods while the other deals with the structure of the data.