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Message
From: Günter Dannoritzer<dannoritzer@w...>
Date: Tue Oct 2 16:07:30 CEST 2007
Subject: [oc] patents and logic cores
Lauro, John wrote:
> In most places, it's not infringing on a patent if it's for personal
> use, so you can build it in an FPGA without issue. In the USA, just
> making a device for personal use can be considered infringing, but it
> is highly unlikely of a law suite. Most likely case would be a cease
> and desist letter, and have to take files off of web sites, etc...
Now that brings up an interesting point. I remember a couple of years
back ShengYu Shen did an ARM core project and got in trouble:
http://www.opencores.org/projects.cgi/web/nnARM/overview
I don't recall what he violated in detail. Anyhow, it seems like he
never went on with development, but now there are two more ARM core
projects on opencores, that seem not to have those problems? Or did the
company just got tiered of pursuing them?
Now I don't know where ShengYu is living that the company had the power
to put that pressure on him. But obviously they must have had a case so
that he took off his project.
This drifts now off a bit, but looking at opencores, then there are more
MIPS based processor projects than ARM based ones. I know there a
several books available that teach Computer architecture based on the
MIPS processor, but the ARM is also very well documented and especially
popular. So I wonder why is it that so many MIPS projects are published
and not ARM ones? Is the ARM company just more eager keeping those
projects off or are there more patents on the ARM than on the MIPS?
If I remember right there were some instructions on the MIPS that were
patented until last year and people kept them out of the published projects.
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