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Do you care where it comes from?
December 20, 2006

"Do you care where it comes from?" is the title of a Personal Engineering editorial by Paul Schreier in December 1989 that still applies today. Schreier questioned the marketing manager of a company selling PC-based data-acquisition equipment if his company was manufacturing or reselling it's products.

I asked a similar question about Keithley's new line of PXI products, which are data-acquistion cards, system controllers, and chassis. Upon receiving the product specifications from Keithley, I began comparing them against those of other companies so see how they stack up. To my surprise, I discovered a match between Keithley's PXI products and those from ADLink. I asked representatives of both companies if ADLink was manufacturing the products for Keithley. I received the same answer: "The products are of Keithley's design." While I won't dispute that claim, I'm left wondering how and why the specs of the two companies' products are so close to each other. You can download the specs and draw your own conclusion.

On the other hand, do you care if you don't know the sources of the test proudcts you buy? Post a comment.

Posted by Martin Rowe on December 20, 2006 | Comments (0)