Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!sun-barr!newstop!pitstop!acockcroft
From: acockcroft@pitstop.West.Sun.COM (Adrian Cockcroft)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: i82786 R.I.P. ?
Message-ID: <734@pitstop.West.Sun.COM>
Date: 27 Jun 89 13:52:26 GMT
References: <1987@ubu.warwick.UUCP> <41891@bbn.COM>
Organization: Sun Microsystems, Mt. View, CA
Lines: 20

In article <41891@bbn.COM>, slackey@bbn.com (Stan Lackey) writes:
> In article <1987@ubu.warwick.UUCP> arthur@flame.warwick.ac.uk (John Vaudin) writes:
> 
> >If this rumour is true then I am interested what implications this has to the
> >current RISC market. If manufacturers are going to stop production of
> >chips because sales are not as high as hoped for then what ...
> 
> In cases where you are worried about this, like your company depends
> on some part, there is a way to protect yourself.  Lore has it that it
> is possible to get production rights if the supplier decides to stop
> making it.  If you can, get the agreements signed before committing to
> the part.

If you buy a processor that is widely second sourced then you reduce your
risk. In the case of SPARC it is also possible to licence the right to design
and manufacture your own SPARC designs for your own use. This is what
Solbourne and Prisma (and others) have done. It is a different licence
from that held by LSI, Cypress, Fujitsu, TI and BIT since they have the right
to sell chips on the open market. Note that the current Solbourne design uses 
Fujitsu chips but Matsushita/Solbourne are working on their own design.