[ale] [Fwd: [Am-info] Advanced Micro Devices will includeMicrosoft's Palladium]

Mike Panetta ahuitzot at mindspring.com
Sat Sep 21 15:52:08 EDT 2002


On Fri, 2002-09-20 at 16:58, James P. Kinney III wrote:
> I hate to mention this, but there is a large array of technology devices
> at the component level that are already on the "restricted for civilian
> use" list. Things such as clock crystals of certain frequencies and
> special logic IC's are already under tight control and basically illegal
> for mere mortals to buy, or even possess. 

Like what?  I can't believe that someone would ban use of certian
crystal frequencies, thats kinda stupid.  With the advent of PLL's just
about any frequency can be synthesized from any crystal.  This is just
plain stupid.  What "special logic IC's" are banned?  Again, with the
advent of modern technology like FPGA's one chip can be programmed to do
just about any Function you want.  Banning a particular piece of silicon
is just rediculous if the algorithm is in the public domain (or even if
its not, people can still get ahold of things through other means).

Now if you told me that certian uses of said hardware were illegal, I
may be able to believe that.  But banning pieces of hardware as simple
as a crystal is just plain insane to me.

> 
> I expect that the industry will happily split its product line. Just
> like the old Intel chips that failed testing with the on-chip numeric
> processor had them burned off and repackaged as -SX series, these new
> chips that fail the DRM test will be burned and then sold at a premium
> for the server crowd.

Nothing was "burned off".  The die was just slightly modified with a
laser or similar to disable the FPU.  BTW, intel (and others) still do
similar things as this today.  They manufacture one speed grade of CPU
and if a lot fails at the intended speed they slow it down untill it
works (within reason).  Thats why overclocking works so well.  There are
also companies like Motorola that subscribe to the 6 sigma design ideals
and create chips that are capable of much higher speed (temp whatever)
operation, but they are only sold for lower speed (temp whatever)
operation because thats how they guarantee the chip will never fail
(within reason of course).

> 
> The black market in computer equipment is already huge. Wait until an
> entire class of processors becomes available to the little guy only
> through your local "dealer"

It may be huge for military type equipment, but otherwise I cant see why
anyone would put anything else on a black market.  Most computer
equipment is standardized these days, even for the military.  Most of
the propriatary stuff is in software now.  I get this mag called VME Bus
systems, that always seems to have one or 2 articles related to military
applications of standard hardware.  There was even an article on how
they upgraded the computers in the M1 Abrams tank.  Certianly the only
thing that made the hardware in the article special was the fact that it
was for harsh environment embedded systems.  That and it cost quite a
bit ;).  Otherwise any of us could buy it today.

> 
> "It's OK kids. The first chip's free!"
> 

Mike

> -- 
> James P. Kinney III   \Changing the mobile computing world/
> President and CEO      \          one Linux user         /
> Local Net Solutions,LLC \           at a time.          /
> 770-493-8244             \.___________________________./
> 
> GPG ID: 829C6CA7 James P. Kinney III (M.S. Physics)
> <jkinney at localnetsolutions.com>
> Fingerprint = 3C9E 6366 54FC A3FE BA4D 0659 6190 ADC3 829C 6CA7 
> 
> 



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