Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site masscomp.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!masscomp!garyo
From: garyo@masscomp.UUCP (Gary Oberbrunner)
Newsgroups: net.micro.atari16,net.micro.amiga,net.micro.68k
Subject: Re: 68000 Memory Managment
Message-ID: <1109@masscomp.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 12-Sep-86 17:15:51 EDT
Article-I.D.: masscomp.1109
Posted: Fri Sep 12 17:15:51 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 13-Sep-86 06:11:45 EDT
References: <508@elmgate.UUCP> <64@mit-prep.ARPA> <510@elmgate.UUCP> <6985@sun.uucp> <823@navajo.STANFORD.EDU>
Reply-To: garyo@masscomp.UUCP (Gary Oberbrunner)
Followup-To: net.micro.68k
Organization: Masscomp - Westford, Ma
Lines: 29
Keywords: patent, 68000, graphics
Xref: watmath net.micro.atari16:1951 net.micro.amiga:4704 net.micro.68k:1817
Summary: Yes, sometimes the patent office gets wacko

In article <6985@sun.uucp>, ludemann@sun.uucp (Jim Ludemann) writes:
> I hate to tell you folks, but Andy Bechtolsheim here at Sun has a patent 
> (applied for and granted) on using the untranslated addresses as the 
> RAS addresses and doing the MMU address translation before the column 
> addresses are needed for CAS.  Sooner or later, it's going to cost some
> competitors a WHOLE lot of money.

Yes, folks, I can believe this man.  I have in my office right now a
patent (which has been successfully contested) on xoring cursors into
a frame buffer, so they can be easily erased.  The patent also apparently
applies to rubber-band lines in xor mode.

I also have another one (can you believe this? it's true!) on the
transformation equations for perspective projection on a display screen,
and their implementation in a digital computer.  This one has also been
fought, and although the original scope of the patent was much reduced
(the guy can now only soak you if you use HIS FORM of the equations), the
patent was upheld, not once but several times (I have a sheaf of court
documents all about this case - if you're interested in this sicko stuff
mail me and I'll provide references).

I don't have the numbers or the authors right here, but if you're interested
I can mail them to you.


It's a mad, mad, mad, mad, mad, MAD world.

					- Gary Oberbrunner
			...!{harvard,allegra}!masscomp!garyo