The following message is a courtesy copy of an article that has been posted to bit.listserv.ibm-main,alt.folklore.computers as well.
[EMAIL PROTECTED] (Doug Fuerst) writes: > How do you figure that reverse engineering is an acceptable method of > R&D or design? Reverse engineering is an easy way to replicate a > design. Since the company creating the product, in this case IBM, > spent millions developing the machine, they would be entitled to some > exclusivity. How fair is it for every competitor to reverse engineer > their machines to mimic the IBM box, and not compensate IBM for that? > At least MOBO manufacturers use different chipsets and moderately > different designs. I don't believe they are reverse engineering Intel > boards, nor is AMD reverse engineering Core Duo's. clone controller business was supposedly primary motivation for the future system project ... lots of past posts http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#futuresys i've posted before about being undergraduate and trying to get the 2702 communication controller to do some stuff and it turned out it couldn't ... which was somewhat motivation for the univ. to start a clone controller project ... reverse engineering the ibm channel interface and building a channel interface card for Interdata/3 ... programmed to emulate 2702. this was written up blaiming four of us for some part of the clone controller business http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#360pcm article from former corporate executive ... including some number of comments about future system project http://www.ecole.org/Crisis_and_change_1995_1.htm including the following: IBM tried to react by launching a major project called the 'Future System' (FS) in the early 1970's. The idea was to get so far ahead that the competition would never be able to keep up, and to have such a high level of integration that it would be impossible for competitors to follow a compatible niche strategy. However, the project failed because the objectives were too ambitious for the available technology. Many of the ideas that were developed were nevertheless adapted for later generations. Once IBM had acknowledged this failure, it launched its 'box strategy', which called for competitiveness with all the different types of compatible sub-systems. But this proved to be difficult because of IBM's cost structure and its R&D spending, and the strategy only resulted in a partial narrowing of the price gap between IBM and its rivals ... snip ... above also referenced here http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007u.html#17 T3 Sues IBM To Break its Mainframe Monopoly there was recent question about some number of people departing and going to work on vax/vms ... which led to joke about head of POK having been a major contributor to VMS ... long winded story involving termination of Future System project and mad rush to get stuff back into the 370 product pipeline: http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007v.html#96 source for VAX programmers http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007v.html#100 source for VAX programmers there is some case to be made that the Future System distraction and leting the 370 product pipeline dry up contributed to giving the processor clones a foothold in the market. past reference to amdahl giving a talk at mit in the early 70s that may be at least partially construed as referring to this ... recent reference http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007t.html#68 T3 Sues IBM To Break its Mainframe Monopoly and other parts of postings in that thread: http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007t.html#69 T3 Sues IBM To Break its Mainframe Monopoly http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007t.html#71 T3 Sues IBM To Break its Mainframe Monopoly http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007t.html#76 T3 Sues IBM To Break its Mainframe Monopoly http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007t.html#77 T3 Sues IBM To Break its Mainframe Monopoly http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007u.html#1 T3 Sues IBM To Break its Mainframe Monopoly http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007u.html#2 T3 Sues IBM To Break its Mainframe Monopoly ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
