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From: henry@utzoo.UUCP (Henry Spencer)
Newsgroups: net.micro
Subject: Re: What if IBM used a 68000
Message-ID: <6193@utzoo.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 30-Nov-85 20:31:19 EST
Article-I.D.: utzoo.6193
Posted: Sat Nov 30 20:31:19 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 30-Nov-85 20:31:19 EST
References: <212@fas.ri.cmu.edu>, <4400133@uiucdcsb>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
Lines: 15

> clearly, that means that the vast powers & buckeroos of IBM were able to be
> brought to bear on Motorola to allow IBM to have access to the mask-set.
> Clearly, IBM wasn't going to simply contract the job out & let Motorola
> make 370's-on-a-chip to sell to everyone.

It's not uncommon to contract such things out with a stipulation that the
result not be made available to anyone else.  Quite possibly IBM did let
Motorola do the dirty work.  This sort of deal is much more common than one
would think, because it's seldom publicized.  For example, HP did not make
its own chips for its scientific pocket calculators in the early days (maybe
not even today, I'm not sure).  They were done by outside contractors, under
ironclad confidentiality agreements.
-- 
				Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
				{allegra,ihnp4,linus,decvax}!utzoo!henry