Authored by: Anonymous on Thursday, July 19 2012 @ 03:20 PM EDT |
FPGA [ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
|
- Possibly not - Authored by: Ian Al on Friday, July 20 2012 @ 06:33 AM EDT
- Possibly not - Authored by: Anonymous on Friday, July 20 2012 @ 04:11 PM EDT
|
Authored by: Anonymous on Thursday, July 19 2012 @ 03:23 PM EDT |
Or back in the day when programming a computer was done by jumpering wires
between connectors, thereby making a special-purpose computer to solve one and
only one problem.
Thankfully today, our computers are capable of running hundreds if not thousands
of programs simultaneously to get as many jobs done.
[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
|
|
Authored by: alisonken1 on Thursday, July 19 2012 @ 03:36 PM EDT |
To program one of those means literally burning the fuses
permanently. Creating a "new machine" in the
process.
Actually, you're not making a "new machine" when
burning the links, you're actually defining the proper paths for the algorithm
that you want the device to accomplish. For example, you can't burn new paths
that aren't already there, only existing possible paths that were placed there
already.
It is similar to "programming" the GAL to become a special-purpose
machine with the exception that once the paths are burned, they cannot be
changed - but the lawyers would make a case that it is a "new machine" based on
their legal theory.
--- - Ken -
import std_disclaimer.py
Registered Linux user^W^WJohn Doe #296561
Slackin' since 1993
http://www.slackware.com
[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
|
|
Authored by: Anonymous on Friday, July 20 2012 @ 04:11 AM EDT |
GALs are usually erasable. Does that mean that the circuits you implement using
them are no longer patentable because the process is reversible?
Does it become patentable when you solder them in rather than place them in a
socket?
This can't be the criterion.[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
|
|
Authored by: Anonymous on Tuesday, July 24 2012 @ 02:12 PM EDT |
Actually, it does nothing of the sort. If you understood reconfigurable logic,
it doesn't make a new machine (They do that when you cut new silicon...)- it
makes a machine with the same behaviors as a PLUGBOARD. All you're doing is
re-wiring the same circuits in differing patterns.
Now...what is patentable is dependent on what you DO with said plugboard...but
it doesn't make a new machine in and of itself.[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
|
|