Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sdd.hp.com!spool.mu.edu!uunet!pyrdc!grebyn!ckp From: ckp@grebyn.com (Checkpoint Technologies) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.misc Subject: Re: Mac can emulate amiga&has over 1,000,000 colors Message-ID: <1991Apr2.003516.8162@grebyn.com> Date: 2 Apr 91 00:35:16 GMT Article-I.D.: grebyn.1991Apr2.003516.8162 References: <49450@nigel.ee.udel.edu> Organization: Grebyn Timesharing Lines: 38 In article <49450@nigel.ee.udel.edu> "F. Michael Theilig" writes: > People have reverse-engineered Sparc chips, Intel chips, IBM's BIOS > and Mac's ROMs, there's nothing stopping them from doing it to Commodore. No one has ever reverse-engineered a Sparc processor. It's not necessary, you can get a complete architecture definition from Sun and build your own as you see fit. Cypress and Fujitsu have done this (maybe others I don't recall). Sun encourages it. I'm also not sure if you pay a license fee to Sun... > To clarify, I wasn't insinuating someone building compatible > custom chips, but that they re-write the exec and intuition routines > that utilize them, doing everything "longhand". Also, a mac running > this theoretical emulator would run reasonably fast until they hit > the emulated custom chip part of the show. Then it would drag. Maybe you don't recall the long discussions about how to get third party graphics card designs integrated into the Amiga. This is exceedingly difficult, and it is likely that the only hope for any new graphics modes for the Amiga will come from new custom graphics chips from Commodore which are made to be compatible. The things that make this exceedingly difficult also makes compatible reverse-engineered rewrites of graphics.library, intended to run on a Mac frame buffer, exceedingly difficult. Oh, and don't expect anyone to clone the custom chips. This is not to say it's impossible, in fact it's easy to find out the full functionality of the chips because it's well documented. But Commodore has a patent on the technology. This means that even if you do a full clean room reverse engineer, you *still* owe Commodore tribute for thinking of it in the first place. Given what that would cost and what kind of revenue this Amiga market generates, no one would be that stupid... -- First comes the logo: C H E C K P O I N T T E C H N O L O G I E S / / ckp@grebyn.com \\ / / Then, the disclaimer: All expressed opinions are, indeed, opinions. \ / o Now for the witty part: I'm pink, therefore, I'm spam! \/