[Coco] Re: [Color Computer] History Bytes

[John R. Hogerhuis]

On Mon, 2005-01-10 at 15:53, Alex Evans wrote:
> On Jan 10, 2005, at 12:40 PM, jdaggett at gate.net wrote:
> 
> > The main hurdle of a Coco on a SoC is not totally limited to the 
> > ROM(s). One must
> > also consider that the instruction set of the MC6809 is IP of 
> > Motorola. The advanced
> > instructions of the HD6309 are also IP of Hitachi.
> 
> Since Hitachi built the 6309 under license from Motorola, a license 
> which Hitachi violated with the advanced features of the 6309.  As a 
> result, officially those advanced instructions do not exist.  If 
> Hitachi were to try to enforce any IP claims on those extentions they 
> would be risking getting themselves into legal trouble with Motorola.  
> In addition you can get around the IP aspect of the instruction set 
> simply by using different names for the instructions.  Look at some of 
> the chips produced by Zilog, Cyrix, and AMD which have not been 
> produced under license from Intel.
> 

Well it depends on what you mean by IP. You cannot copyright facts or
mechanisms like an instruction set. I don't know if you can patent an
instruction set, but you could certainly patent certain aspects of it.
However, unless there was something really innovative there, I doubt any
of it is still protected by patent.

So the best a company can hope for is a contract or license violation --
if you never sign a contract with them, you're OK. Sort of like SCO...
the only companies they have a chance of suing successfully are their
own former customers...

I believe there are free 6809 cores available already at opencores.org,
so no one need license any Motorola IP for a Coco SoC.

-- John