>Of course we don't know exactly which patents are involved, or what the >terms of the transfer were. But my guess would be that the patents >primarily involve hardware, and Microsoft is interested in covering its >potential liabilities as it moves into the hardware market (though XBox, >Homestation or whatever it turns out to be, UltimateTV, and various >embedded systems).
I actually disagree. I suspect they are more likely to be software patents. I don't think Microsoft has any intentions on becoming a chip designer/manufacturer or even a hardware manufacturer. There is very little inside XBox outside of the software that is Microsoft. Intel makes the CPU. NVIDIA makes the graphics and media processors. Intel/NVIDIA designed the motherboard. The hard drive is certainly not Microsofts (IBM?) and Microsoft almost certainly doesn't manufacturer the XBox. Microsoft is and I suspect always will be a software development and marketing/distribution company. I just can't see them having much interest in any of SGI's hardware patents. David _________________________________________________________________ Chat with friends online, try MSN Messenger: http://messenger.msn.com _______________________________________________ Dri-devel mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/dri-devel
