Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!mcgill-vision!snorkelwacker!usc!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!swrinde!ucsd!nprdc!malloy From: malloy@nprdc.arpa (Sean Malloy) Newsgroups: comp.misc Subject: Re: Latest code-copying decision Message-ID: <9504@skinner.nprdc.arpa> Date: 12 Sep 90 18:25:33 GMT References: <1990Sep11.185105.14201@kodak.kodak.com> <1990Sep12.123323.1760@uncecs.edu> <9496@skinner.nprdc.arpa> Reply-To: malloy@nprdc.arpa (Sean Malloy) Distribution: na Organization: Navy Personnel R&D Center, San Diego Lines: 38 In article mwm@raven.pa.dec.com (Mike (My Watch Has Windows) Meyer) writes: >In article <9496@skinner.nprdc.arpa> malloy@nprdc.arpa (Sean Malloy) writes: > 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. This was not apparent from the description of the situation as posted, which only described the company as going in and hacking the microcode. It still seems to me like a nonissue, though; all the microcode, regardless of how hacked it was, is still being used by the processors that ran it before it was modified. If the company that rewrote the microcode isn't retaining a copy of it, then it seems to me that IBM's gripe is essentially that they didn't get to charge big bucks to do the modification themselves -- to use the automotive analogy, like Ford suing you because you didn't use a Ford-employed mechanic when you had your engine bored and stroked. >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. More like making four motorized unicycles and copying the steering wheel and pedals. Sean Malloy | "Making something difficult Navy Personnel Research & Development Center | is no substitute for making San Diego, CA 92152-6800 | it impossible." malloy@nprdc.navy.mil |