How to get technical information?

Richard Smith rsmith at bitworks.com
Tue May 20 14:48:01 CEST 2003


Peter Busser wrote:
> I'm sorry if this is a FAQ...
> 
> How does one get technical information from chipset manufacturers? I have
> searched the SiS and VIA web sites and found no documentation or pointers to
> documentation whatsoever. Or am I simply not looking well enough?
> 

Its not.  But its a good one to add.

If the info isn't available on the web then it probally only accessable 
by an NDA agreement with the manufacturers.  You need to find what sales 
organization reps the Mfg and then contact them.  They can get you in 
touch with people who can get you the data.  While a big PITA an NDA 
dosn't necessarlly prohibit you from doing LB work with that chipset.

Some mfgs allow you to release your source GPL and only hold you to keep 
an NDA on the documents you used to generate your source code.  Some of 
course don't and require that you can only release binaries which would 
make them incompatible with LB.

I whine to mfg reps about this type stuff all the time.  "Why do you 
guys keep your register docs under NDA and make it so difficult on us to 
get?"  The most common response other than  "Well thats just the way we 
do it." is that if the full register level documentation for a 
particular chip is aviailable publically then its pretty easy for me to 
make an exact knockoff of that chip that will be drop in compatible.

Sounds like a lot of work but when you are talking big volumes of parts 
the ammount of $$ at stake are quite large.  So if you can make a pin 
compatible version of say an Intel northbridge and then go hit up Intel 
customers with a lower price you will probally get a lot of buisness 
especially if you shave couple dollars off the cost.

Placing the register descriptions under NDA makes that much harder and 
gives them a legal path to stop it should it occur.

It sucks and I don't fully agree but I can see the logic.

-- 
Richard A. Smith
rsmith at bitworks.com





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