9 Feb
2004
9 Feb
'04
6:51 p.m.
On Mon, 9 Feb 2004, Terry Blunt wrote:
Maybe I'm missing something, but I can never understand hardware manufacturers being cagey about their specs. I would have thought it would save them a lot of hassle if they *didn't* have to write drivers themselves.
2 reasons. First, somebody might steal their ideas. Evidently this happens.
The second is really complicated, but works like this. Suppose you create and design feature X into your chipset. You might find, via a lawsuit, that feature X is patented by company Y. I've talked to vendors who would like to open their hardware but are scared to do so for this very reason -- they might have designed a patented feature into their hardware without realizing it.
ron