``Product Variants are again a cost optimization, allowing the design, manufacture, and inventory of a single version of the hardware to support many versions of the product. Combined with field upgrades, both the longevity and breadth of a single hardware design can be extended, giving a dramatic return in the form of lower design and manufacturing cost, as well as the reduction of required inventory to support varying demands of a variety of product versions.

The use of variants can also improve a product’s competitiveness, allowing the release of minor competitive tweaks (1.1, 1.2, 1.3, etc.) instead of just major releases (like 1.0, 2.0, 3.0). Improving a product’s ability to respond to competitive pressures and to quickly adapt to changing conditions can be a clear advantage over the more traditional cycle time of an ASIC-style methodology.``

doni