On Fri, 2003-02-21 at 12:42, Jon D. wrote:
I just read this good article "Will the real chip
standard please stand up?" [1] In a nutshell it states that Intel would have everyone
believe that x86 is /the/ industry standards chip, but
the author argues that, while it's the pervasive
commodity, it's quite proprietary. He goes on to say
that the Sparc architecture is a free standard
according to IEEE (IEEE 1754-1994).
IEEE is just another organization like Intel or HP. Nobody _has_ to listen to them. They may define a "standard" but if nobody uses it then where does your definition of the word standard go? And have you ever designed a chip before? It ain't like writing code. You don't see too
Bryan, you've used VHDL. It's a little different, but IMHO it really is a lot like programming, you just have to think in parrallel instead of strict serial.
Also, I think there's a big difference between HP or Intel and IEEE. HP and Intel are members of IEEE. IEEE is a non-profit standards body (amongst other things), HP and Intel are for-profit corporations.
many open source hardware projects, or even open source hardware design software out there. Sure, any college kid can write a kernel in his bedroom... I can see why most just buy from Intel.
You're right that it's harder to fiddle with hardware than with software, but not much harder than it was to fiddle with software back when RMS started the GNU project.
Bryan
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