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From: prestonb@hpcvra.cv.hp.com. (Preston Brown)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.handhelds
Subject: Re: Sparcom (Was Re: download library from EQ LIB card)
Message-ID: <25590093@hpcvra.cv.hp.com.>
Date: 1 Feb 91 20:43:19 GMT
References: <1991Jan30.172817.26528@csn.org>
Organization: Hewlett-Packard Co., Corvallis, OR, USA
Lines: 23


For some of the cards out there (including my Casino 48 card) copy protection
in not necessary.  Anyone who wants the program will pay less if he
or she buys the card in ROM format then if they download it into RAM.

Backup is not really useful since the restore would require enough free 
memory to load it back.  Not many users have empty 128K RAM cards available
to load a backup copy of their EQ card into should it fail.

Someone with lots of RAM may want to free up a port;  but if you need 
an entire 128K library then you are not going to be able to free the port 
anyway since the library will fill it up in either format.  The person is 
better off spending less on the ROM then buying a 128K RAM card to load it 
into.

I also dislike copy protection and knew the simple methods built
into the 48 would be quickly beaten.  But with the price of RAM so
high and the limited address space of each port I am not to worried 
about it.

Preston

These comments are my own and may not represent those of my company.