I read more of the article. Another part of the anti-competitive stance is that only IBM does, or can, produce a 64-bit z series machine for customer use (FlexES 64-bit was only for developers?). One of the plaintiff was/is T3, who was with HP in the area of running IBM z/OS, and other z software, on an Itanium via some sort of emulator. They claim that this limits competition because IBM has again "bundled" the hardware and software, excluding other hardware vendors from making compatible hardware which can run IBM's z/OS and other 64-bit z series software, thus "locking in" their customers. I am aware that, unlike the S/360 & S/370, some of the instructions on the z are patented and undocumented, but used in critical parts of the z series OS (z/OS, and z/VM at least). That is, you cannot use the published POO to create a "work alike". I am not sure how this compares to Intel's x86 and AMD's implementation of x86. I guess it is the fact that Intel and AMD have cross license! s, whereas IBM does not have any sort of cross licenses for zArch.
I'm not really sure where MS actually comes into this, at all. -- John McKown Systems Engineer IV IT Administrative Services Group HealthMarkets(r) 9151 Boulevard 26 * N. Richland Hills * TX 76010 (817) 255-3225 phone * (817)-961-6183 cell [email protected] * www.HealthMarkets.com Confidentiality Notice: This e-mail message may contain confidential or proprietary information. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply e-mail and destroy all copies of the original message. HealthMarkets(r) is the brand name for products underwritten and issued by the insurance subsidiaries of HealthMarkets, Inc. -The Chesapeake Life Insurance Company(r), Mid-West National Life Insurance Company of TennesseeSM and The MEGA Life and Health Insurance Company.SM ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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
