jcfst@unix.cis.pitt.edu (John C. Fossum) (08/02/90)
In the most recent issue of Amazing Amiga (July or August, I don't have the thing in front of me), in the Roomers column, there is a bit on how TI is looking to sue some companies, Commodore included, for I think using similar schematics? Correct me and inform me if I'm wrong. -Steve M. Suhy
rusty@steelmill.cs.umd.edu (Rusty Haddock) (08/02/90)
In article <26408@unix.cis.pitt.edu> jcfst@unix.cis.pitt.edu (John C. Fossum) writes: > > In the most recent issue of Amazing Amiga (July or August, I don't >have the thing in front of me), in the Roomers column, there is a bit >on how TI is looking to sue some companies, Commodore included, for >I think using similar schematics? Correct me and inform me if I'm >wrong. > >-Steve M. Suhy Is this Steve or John? Anyhow, the short bit in the Roomers column states that TI was suing a number of computer manufacturers due to some patents TI holds on very basic hardware technology/technique. If you had really read the column you'd see that nothing was mentioned about "similar schematics". Wouldn't that be copyright infringement though? (Marco? 0.5 :-) From the 5-years I spent at TI I know that the company does hold patents on very basic digital electronics stuff. This kind of stuff is usually taught to anyone involved with digital computers at the hardware level. I believe that, if the story about the suit is true, the patents being protected involves performing I/O to/from the CPU via bit-manipulation. Yes, very basic stuff but TI does hold patents of this type among many others. Maybe someone from TI could comment on this? (That's why I cross-posted to comp.sys.ti) -Rusty- -- Rusty Haddock DOMAIN: rusty@mimsy.cs.umd.edu Computer Science Department PATH: {uunet,rutgers}!mimsy!rusty University of Maryland "IBM sucks silicon!" College Park, Maryland 20742 -- PC Banana Jr,"Bloom County"