29 Jun
2007
29 Jun
'07
4:09 p.m.
On 29 Jun 2007 at 17:25, Jim Leonard wrote:
But it did have a ROM BIOS, obviously. So the
question still stands.
The answer's pretty simple. Compaq had the time and money to do it
right. When IBM started suing clone makers for infringement over
BIOS issues, Compaq did a "double-blind" clone of the 5150 BIOS.
Two sets of programmers were used. The first studied the IBM BIOS
and wrote up detailed specifications about its function, without
including any code from the original. The second team coded a BIOS
to these specs. Lather, rinse, repeat until right.
IIRC, it cost Compaq about a million dollars and took a year.
DTK did a similar effort, supported by a grant from the Taiwanese
government.
Now, of course, such an effort would be in violation of DMCA, but it
worked back then. I'm surprised that no one did that with the Mac
ROMs--anyone know why not?
Cheers,
Chuck