Tim Kerby wrote:
>>
>> Do parallax use a c54 on the stamp or another processor?  Is the command
>> set copyrighted - i notice the picstic is a direct copy.  Can I make these
>> things?  What is the cheapest available?

Don McKenzie wrote:
>They use a PIC16C56/XT/P
>
>If commands like gosub and goto were copyright material, Bill Gates
>would never have got his first version of basic (as we know it) going
>some 20 plus years ago. It's a little like trying to copyright the
>alphabet.

Don, be careful of what you think is and isn't patented.

The thing I was *always* amazed at being patented is the cursor on a screen.
IBM patented it and I don't think the patent has run out yet (I think it was
granted in the late '70s).

Motorola didn't think there was a patent and ended up getting nailed in a
very expensive out of court settlement because they designed a chip with a
cursor and not one with hardware that could emulate a cursor. IBM discovered
the infringement before the PC was first shipped when they did a search to
see if IBM was infringing on anybody else's patents.

I got pulled into this one in '82 when I had to go through the designs of
all the IBM Rochester terminal products (S/34 & S/38 at the time) which were
built in Toronto at the time and determine whether or not they used chips
which violated the patent.

Makers of Screen Control Hardware with Cursors (ie the Motorola 6845 used in
the early PCs) all have paid IBM hundreds of millions in royalties to be
able to have Cursor Hardware on their chips.

Another useless tidbit from the mind of:

myke

"I don't do anything that anybody else in good physical condition and
unlimited funds couldn't do" - Bruce Wayne