> On Wed, 8 Jul 1998, John Levon wrote:
> > > On Wed, 8 Jul 1998, Richard B. Johnson wrote:
> > >
> > > > Worse that that. If you buy any Intel processor since the 8086, US$5.00
> > > > of the cost is a license fee paid to Micro$haft. Micro$haft claims
> > > > ownership to the "Intel Architecture", i.e., what used to be called
> > > > the "IBM-PC/AT". They "purchased" the rights to this design from IBM
no they didn't. billg was busy dropping out of havard to write a basic
interpretor for the altair 8800 starting in about 1974...
> > > > sometime in the early '70s, waited about 10 years for major developments
> > > > to be made by Intel and others, then threatened a suit. The settlement
major developments were main by intel. hell it's their patents.
> > > > was a 5.00 per processor fee to be paid by the end-user.
Looks like you have a good cultural myth going here. Microsoft, so far as
I know owns no critical semi-conductor patents. the 8086 architecture got
used for dos machines in the following manner:
~1979 IBM decides to build a personal computer.
~1980 IBM decides to use the intel 8088/8086 cpu because they aquired
the use of intel's intelectual property up to that point in a
swap for the use of some memory patents. IBM engineers wanted to
use the motorola 68k however IBM was already manufacturing various
intel desgins for typewriters and what not...
~1980 IBM goes shopping for an operating system, first tries digital
research who screws them, then calls on bill gates who is already
providing among other things a basic interpretor for the new machine
(under contract) bill doesn't have an os so he buys one. a cp/m
clone from seattle software design's tim paterson and sells
unlimited use of it to IBM for $120,000
> > Will this also appy directly or indirectly to chips bought in the UK ? I
> > swore I wouldn't give them any money ever.
>
> An 8086 costs the equivalent of USD 7, including 22% sales
> tax, in the local electronics shop here. If Bill G gets 5
> dollars, and 1.30 goes to the tax man, that would leave 70
> cents...
>
> How could Microsoft acquire the rights to something that
> didn't even exist in the early '70s? The 8086 itself is a late
> '70s chip, and the IBM-PC (the original, not the AT, which
> came later) must have come after that.
billg was in highschool in the early 70's, the intel 4004 the worlds first
microprocessor was built in 1971. The IBM PC was introduced in august of
1981.
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Joel Jaeggli joelja@darkwing.uoregon.edu
Academic User Services consult@gladstone.uoregon.edu
PGP Key Fingerprint: 1DE9 8FCA 51FB 4195 B42A 9C32 A30D 121E
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It is clear that the arm of criticism cannot replace the criticism of
arms. Karl Marx -- Introduction to the critique of Hegel's Philosophy of
the right, 1843.
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