You could right, but I would be very suprised considering IBM's penchant for protecting IP. If there was a cross licensing agreement I seriously doubt they would have the right to resdistribute the IP rights to other organizations......... ----- Original Message ----- From: "Andrew Lentvorski" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Main Discussion List for KPLUG" <[email protected]> Subject: Re: Rumor Mill: Apple explores use of Intel chips Date: Sat, 04 Jun 2005 12:16:04 -0700
> > Randall Shimizu wrote: > > I remember the AIM and PowerOpen. The key word is 'alliance'. > > Apple never had anything to do with the actual design of PPC. Their > > only role was to help specify processing requirements and to agree to > > purchase the chip. IBM owns most if not all the patents to PPC and > > Power chips. > > Funny, there are quite a few of my ex-colleagues from Somerset who > worked for Apple who would disagree with you. I worked on 602 and > a graphics coprocessor for 602 (both of which were slated for the > 3DO gaming system, remember that?) and some of 603e. > > It is true that Apple did not provide much in terms of hardware > VLSI engineering. However, quite a few of the Apple folks were > involved in specification (as you point out), compilers, bring up > (we used a Minix board as a stress test), and test. > > IBM may own the majority of patents, but that is probably more of a > function of having a complete division that does nothing but push > patents. Patents concerning PowerPC were subject to a joint > cross-ownership scheme. > > This even extended to things like the CAD software used to design > the chips. One employee, without permission, pulled in an IBM EDA > tool that IBM was about to market and sell. Motorola noticed that > it was on the computers at Somerset, and claimed it. A gigantic > mess ensued. > > Now, this may have changed since I worked there in 1994. Somerset > dissolved, and lots of the work rolled into IBM specifically with > Motorola serving more as a second source foundry than anything else. > > -a > > > -- [email protected] > http://www.kernel-panic.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/kplug-list -- ___________________________________________________________ Sign-up for Ads Free at Mail.com http://promo.mail.com/adsfreejump.htm -- [email protected] http://www.kernel-panic.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/kplug-list
