Den 2021-07-06 kl. 19:01, skrev Paul Koning:
On Jul 6, 2021, at 12:47 PM, john%ziaspace.com@localhost wrote:Right… it’s a pure load/store architecture with exactly one addressing mode. The hypothetical VAX-64 that’s being discussed here is really just “make VAX bigger and address some annoyances”.(apologies that Pine is mangling NeXT Mail's quotes and apostrophes) Curious - what would the commercial implication be if, say, a new VAX architecture were to take shape in the FPGA world? Does anyone have "rights" to the ISA?IANAL, but there probably are three parts to that question. 1. Patents. If any existed (likely) those are almost certainly long expired.
I very much doubt anything I've written is covered by patents...
I searched the US trademark database, but it seems as all those old trademarks are dead. VAX was cancelled on March 11, 2016. Somewhat late, but I assume HP just let it timeout.2. Trademarks. Possible, so don't call it "vax".
MicroVAX II was cancelled on April 16, 1996. Just "MicroVAX" was cancelled on June 13, 2008. Hm, how do you register a trademark in the US? :-)
3. Copyright. I don't see how that can be applied to an ISA, though it clearly can be to a particular set of words describing it -- like the VAX SRM or DEC Std 032. But a description of a new "inspired by VAX" architecture would be written with new words so that should be fine.
Can an ISA even be copyrighted? And could it be in 1977? :-) -- R