Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!cmcl2!sbcs!ameristar!rick From: rick@ameristar (Rick Spanbauer) Newsgroups: comp.arch Subject: Re: SUN MMU design secrets Message-ID: <1990Nov5.122811.310@ameristar> Date: 5 Nov 90 12:28:11 GMT References: <1990Nov3.150202.27353@ameristar> <1990Nov3.235958.21976@zoo.toronto.edu> Organization: Ameristar Technology, Inc Lines: 26 In article pcg@cs.aber.ac.uk (Piercarlo Grandi) writes: >henry> In article <1990Nov3.150202.27353@ameristar> rick@ameristar (Rick >henry> Spanbauer) writes: > >rick> It may be a simple reason, like not wanting users to be able to >rick> buy only SunOS tapes from Sun and then run the binaries on cheap >rick> sparc clones, or to make the job of clone companies harder... > >Actually you *can* do that; people can license SunOS and offer it on >their platforms. Also, people can provide a SunOS compatible ABI. > >Another simple reason may be to prevent people from implementing non >SunOS operating systems on their hardware. But indeed if you try hard >enough you can do it, as correctly observed: No, I think you both missed my point (which perhaps says I should have made it better :-) ) - without the prprietery MMU, the clone folks could get SunOS the way PC types get MS-DOS, ie no license fee. Just tell their customers to buy tapes from Sun and load them up. Thus Sun looses both the hardware sale and the large front licensing fee they would normally collect. >Piercarlo "Peter" Grandi | ARPA: pcg%uk.ac.aber.cs@nsfnet-relay.ac.uk Rick Spanbauer Ameristar