Re: Patents

[zklf0b@gs87.hou.amoco.com (Fergason)]

In article <63ga03LgdfZe00@amdahl.uts.amdahl.com> fadden@uts.amdahl.com (Andy McFadden) writes:
>
>In article <CHLJ9M.9uw@trc.amoco.com> zklf0b@gs87.hou.amoco.com (Fergason) writes:
>>
>>Patents last for 17 years.  I am not sure about renewal.
>
>The idea behind patents is to encourage the distribution of ideas by
>protecting the inventor.  They do last for 17 years, and aren't renewable.
>
>Don't confuse them with copyrights, which last for much longer and follow
>a different set of rules.

Not really sure what brought this on, as I did not confuse the two.  I am
not even sure anyone brought up the matter of copyright.

>
>PowerPC.  By the time you added more registers and new instructions it'd
>look like one of those anyway.
>


Maybe.  The 6502 had a very simple instruction set.  I would like
to see it extended to 16 and 32 bit.  

I have seen and programmed the 65816, and while I thought it was 
nice, it didn't excite me all that much.



>Making it look like a 386 would be a crime against humanity.
I would agree with that.


Kelly