Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!decwrl!bacchus.pa.dec.com!granite.pa.dec.com!mwm From: mwm@raven.pa.dec.com (Mike (My Watch Has Windows) Meyer) Newsgroups: comp.misc Subject: Re: Latest code-copying decision Message-ID: Date: 12 Sep 90 15:49:10 GMT References: <1990Sep11.185105.14201@kodak.kodak.com> <1990Sep12.123323.1760@uncecs.edu> <9496@skinner.nprdc.arpa> Sender: news@wrl.dec.com (News) Distribution: na Organization: Missionaria Phonibalonica Lines: 28 In-Reply-To: malloy@nprdc.arpa's message of 12 Sep 90 14:06:24 GMT In article <9496@skinner.nprdc.arpa> malloy@nprdc.arpa (Sean Malloy) writes: Close, but no cigar. These people have _bought_ the computers, and it is the microcode that is being altered. It's not software, it's firmware -- an integral part of the machine, without which the machine is incapable of running software. An almost exact analogy is to the new breed of cars with electronically-controlled fuel systems, where the mixture, timing, et al, is controlled by a ROM program in order to maximize fuel economy. There is an industry centered around replacing those ROMs with new ROMs programmed to give the car higher performance (at the expense of fuel economy). My understanding (from reading the article in the SJMN) is that the the "improvements" included taking a multi-processors IBM mainframe and turning it into a network of uniprocessor machines, including copying the microcode needed to make this happen. Useing the hotrod analogy, it's like taking your 944, and turning it into 4 1-cylinder motorcycles by cloning the rest of the car around it. In copying the ROM used to control the engine to those 4 motorcycles, you've violated the copyright on the ROM.