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From: howell@grover.llnl.gov (Louis Howell)
Newsgroups: comp.org.eff.talk
Subject: Legality of simulated machines
Message-ID: <85356@lll-winken.LLNL.GOV>
Date: 2 Nov 90 18:08:16 GMT
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Reply-To: howell@grover.llnl.gov (Louis Howell)
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I have recently considered writing simulators for various obsolete
computers like the PDP-10, PDP-11, TRS80, etc., purely for historical
interest.  For the PDP-11, for example, I would need to write an
assembler to convert MACRO-11 programs into PDP-11 machine code, and
a "virtual machine" to run the machine code.

Would this be a copyright violation?  Could it conceivably even be
a patent violation, if the companies involved hold patents relating
to parts of the instruction sets?  Is the situation analogous to the
Lotus 1-2-3 look-and-feel copyright questions, or is there a
difference I have overlooked?

-- 
Louis Howell

  "A few sums!" retorted Martens, with a trace of his old spirit.  "A major
navigational change, like the one needed to break us away from the comet
and put us on an orbit to Earth, involves about a hundred thousand separate
calculations.  Even the computer needs several minutes for the job."