Re: [PLUG] Fwd: CG: Windows XP warning

[Bill Jonas <bill@billjonas.com>]

On Mon, Feb 11, 2002 at 11:54:38AM -0500, Fred K Ollinger wrote:
> I thought that Compaq reverse engineered the proprietary hardware then
> sold it for less which opened up the cloning phenomenom.

On Mon, Feb 11, 2002 at 12:11:11PM -0500, Mike Leone wrote:
> I thought IBM released the specs to their first PC, and that's what
> started all the clones. That's why IBM tried to go the MCA bus route,
> to take it back to a proprietary setting.

Actually, what I remember hearing is that just about everything was open
except for the BIOS, which was (is still) necessary for perfect
compatibility.  Compaq (Or was it DEC?  I can't remember.) clean-room
reverse-engineered the BIOS.  I think there was a lawsuit about the
matter.

Apple hardware, on the other hand, created their BIOS equivalent (not
that up on Apple hardware, sorry) in such a way that it would be very
hard to duplicate without infringing copyright.  (I think IBM was based
on calling BIOS functions while Apple's was based on executing
instructions starting at certain memory offsets.  Or something to that
effect.)

-- 
Bill Jonas    *    bill@billjonas.com    *    http://www.billjonas.com/

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