Re: [stella] Re: 2600's TIA & the TV Boy

[Glenn Saunders <cybpunks2@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 12:46 AM 8/20/2001 -0500, you wrote:
> Hmmm.  Dunno.  Would it still be piracy even though the end result was of 
> a totally different design than the original?  i.e. HDL vs. NMOS 
> transistor layout?  Or does it count because the design is based off the 
> original work?

It could be considered theft of intellectual property by using the original 
proprietary schematics as a reference.  You'd have to prove you totally 
reverse engineered the 2600 without being privy to any copyrighted 
technical information in order to be clear of that.  But that's pretty much 
impossible today because so much once-classified Atari documentation is in 
heavy circulation.

It would be interesting to see what Infogrames is planning with its old 
properties.  How pissed they would be is dependent on whether the final 
result steals their thunder or not.

The Toymax device involves no royalties paid to Infogrames that I am aware 
of, so at least in theory, I don't think it's necessary to worry about 
Infogrames suing.

Even though Atari of yore battled 2600 clones relatively successfully, I 
don't think it would ever come to that again.

> WDC does indeed sell a VHDL version of the 65C02 core, but you can bet 
> they'd want tons to use it, and one would have to sign an NDA.

Do companies like these really charge tons for what is, in the end, a 20+ 
year old chip design?

I wonder what the actual figures are, and how many devices are currently 
employing the 65C02 core.  I would suspect not too many, vs. let's say, 
low-cost 32-bit RISC processors that aren't as confining as the 6502 is.

WDC may need the business enough to offer a bargain.



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