"...it was based on a USB product we had already been making for PCs for almost a decade. This product was so old in fact that nobody knew how to compile the s

"...it was based on a USB product we had already been making for PCs for almost a decade. This product was so old in fact that nobody knew how to compile the source code. " I think you mean "Management was so bad, nobody knew how to compile the source code". There are plenty of systems out there that can and and plenty that cannot be reproduced from source. The biggest difference is the card taken to do so, not the age.