Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!usc!apple!chuq
From: chuq@Apple.COM (That's MR. Idiot to you)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: Reserve engineering stuff,.....
Message-ID: <41723@apple.Apple.COM>
Date: 7 Jun 90 20:56:35 GMT
References: <1990Jun7.190751.10452@cs.utk.edu> <1990Jun7.202044.7800@eng.umd.edu>
Distribution: usa
Organization: Fictional Reality. We can write it for you wholesale
Lines: 34

russotto@eng.umd.edu (Matthew T. Russotto) writes:

>>	I have been wondering about the legality of the following:
>>
>>	Suppose you take a programmable RISC based CPU and make it
>>immulate a 68030.

>>Use the TIGA chip to control graphics with a Mac emmulator in ROM so
>>that windows open to a "mac-like" screen.  Now market it as a Mac
>>compatible.

>You might not violate any copyrights doing this, but there are a few aspects
>of the Mac OS that are patented, and I suspect that doing this would violate
>them.

It might make sense to research the Microsoft/Apple and DRI [GEM]/Apple
disagreements for some idea of how Apple might think of this and what the
arguments for and against would be.

Personally, I'm more interested in the technical aspects: I wonder how many
dozens of people and hundreds of man-years would be needed to (1) build a
RISC-based computer, (2) wedge a 60xxx emulator into it, (3) re-implement
the Mac ROM in a non-infringing but compatible way, (4) re-implement all the
system software as well and (5) get this out on the market -- it seems to me
that when you were done paying for all that, it'd be hard to do it and 
be cheaper than a Mac. This is not a weekend hack we're talking about.


-- 

Chuq Von Rospach   <+>   chuq@apple.com   <+>   [This is myself speaking]

Wherefore could I not pronounce 'Amen'? I had most need of blessing, and
'Amen' stuck in my throat. --MacBeth