Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!rutgers!njin!princeton!phoenix!caromero
From: caromero@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (C. Antonio Romero)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: Jonathan (Macintosh Clone for somewhat more than $1000!)
Message-ID: <7483@phoenix.Princeton.EDU>
Date: 30 Mar 89 02:46:44 GMT
References: <530@umiami.miami.edu> <7423@phoenix.Princeton.EDU> <16381@cup.portal.com>
Reply-To: caromero@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (C. Antonio Romero)
Organization: Princeton University, NJ
Lines: 28

In article <16381@cup.portal.com> jwhitnell@cup.portal.com (Jerry D Whitnell) writes:
>Antonio Romero    romero@confidence.princeton.edu writes...
>>Given the success of Phoenix, Award and DTK among others at cloning the
>>PC BIOS withough legal problems, I don't see how Apple can deal with
>>the cloned Mac ROMS through the usual lawsuits, unless they can
>>demonstrate the 'uncleanness' of the ROMS.
>
>The difference between the original PC ROMs and the Macintosh is that
>Apple holds patents on several pieces of technology included in the ROM.
>So any clone not only has to duplicate the function of the ROM, but also
>has the implement those functions without infringing on the patents Apple
>holds.  Not a task for the faint of heart or small of pocketbook.

This is perhaps the first comment I've heard that raises a
convincing-sounding problem.  To others who say "It would be a nice
trick if you could do it," I wholeheartedly agree-- but several
companies _claim_ to have already successfully cloned the 128K's.
This was mentioned in the story about the Jonathan in MacWeek.
Now I'll be very impressed if they caught all the little undocumented
hooks into the ROMS... but given that the cloners have had several years
to work on it, I'd believe at this point that they're close enough to
handle 'well-behaved' software that goes through officially documented
calls, etc. How much of the software base that covers, I don't know.

I'd also be impressed if they got around the legal hassles that Jerry
brings up in his posting.

-Antonio Romero     romero@confidence.princeton.edu