Date: Mon, 12 May 1997 17:42:31 +0200 (MET DST) From: Luigi Rizzo <luigi@labinfo.iet.unipi.it> To: dennis@etinc.com (dennis) Cc: msmith@atrad.adelaide.edu.au, hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: if_de.c ???? Message-ID: <199705121542.RAA22417@labinfo.iet.unipi.it> In-Reply-To: <3.0.32.19970512101113.00bac288@etinc.com> from "dennis" at May 12, 97 10:10:57 am
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Dennis said:
> Would be nice, wouldn't it?
>
> Certain things you're just not gonna get...so deal with it. Do you
> think that SMC is gonna build another card with DEC-like chip when
> anyone with a $500. layout program can clone the board and steal
> their market? Its getting so easy to clone hardware, particularly
> with single chip solutions, that you're going to see big vendors
as it is to build them in the first place, so you cannot really
complain about cloning the board. As an example, the Matrox Meteor
is essentially the same board as described in the Philips data
sheets, so everybody could have built it without the need for
cloning the board. I assume it is the same for the 21x4x, Bt848
and other single-chip PCI devices.
The chip manufacturer has 3 options:
1. sell the chip in very high volumes because specs are public
and anyone is able to write a driver;
2. sell the specs and device to selected manufacturers, with
a probably smaller market but higher margins on each chip;
3. build the card itself so cloning is impossible because both
the chip and the specs are not available.
I don't think #2 is a viable option, though, except perhaps for special
HW which would not have high volumes in any case. And in those cases
you would probably chose a well reputed manufacturer anyways.
Luigi
-----------------------------+--------------------------------------
Luigi Rizzo | Dip. di Ingegneria dell'Informazione
email: luigi@iet.unipi.it | Universita' di Pisa
tel: +39-50-568533 | via Diotisalvi 2, 56126 PISA (Italy)
fax: +39-50-568522 | http://www.iet.unipi.it/~luigi/
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