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Re: [oc] Thanks For Your Support Of Merlin
On Friday 07 December 2001 01:04, David Drummond wrote:
> I am redesigning Merlin and updating it's references plus publishing
> it to 3 sites.
You might want to add a small note mentioning that your project has no
relation to my object oriented computers which were previously also
known as Merlin:
http://www.lsi.usp.br/~jecel/merlin.html
http://www.merlintec.com
I have changed the name (too confusing, with OS/2 4.0 and the next
version of WinCE also called Merlin, as well as many hardware projects)
but every month a few people who only know the old name write to me.
Well, "no relation" is a bit of an exageration as I have been working
on Transmeta-like adaptive compilation since 1992 and my previous
processor design was very similar to theirs. Since switching from a
Virtex 300+external translated code cache
(http://www.merlintec.com/merlin6/merlin6b.gif) to a Virtex II my
architecture has gone in a different direction. BTW, I had to abandon
the name "Tachyon" for my processor since it too was already used
everywhere.
The two main differences between the old Tachyon and Crusoe were that
the core was a 4 bus MOVE machine (http://ce.et.tudelft.nl/MOVE/)
instead of a VLIW and I didn't need their patented shadow
registers/memory buffers since I wanted to emulate object oriented
virtual machines and not the x86.
HP and IBM have also done a lot of work in this area (IBM's patents are
more of a problem than Transmeta's) and if you need any advice, I would
be glad to help.
> My hope is that my request that I sent to Transmeta will be commented
> on, even if I have to arrange a license for use of the schematics of
> thier CPU, this will make it an official project of a corporation and
> thus could be proved in court in case someone decides to patent the
> system.
I haven't had any luck getting a response from them other than a
confirmation that I was registered for their developer's newsletter (no
issue yet since January 2000). I can understand that they prefer to
deal with the big guys only.
Since this is Open Cores, why don't you make your own CPU and just
arrange to license their patents under some reasonable terms? They
might actually find this idea more acceptable.
Good luck!
-- Jecel
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