Linked by Eugenia Loli-Queru on Sat 19th Mar 2005 05:03 UTC
With the recent push from OpenBSD to open firmwares to redistribution as well as obtaining new documentation for several wireless chipsets it would seem OpenBSD is pushing for other areas to open up as well.
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I do not agree with the notion that providing open documentations and specifications leak out trade secrets to competitors. Research and development costs are hardly bound to writing drivers or interfaces to hardware. They are bound to the fabrication and manufacturing processes for the hardware.
Even if Nvidia released full open documentations and specifications for their various hardware components, it does not automatically suggest ATI can copy or clone Nvidia's technology. Why? Well, because of their disparate fabrication and manufacturing technologies. Hardware engineering is hardly like coding where you can copy and paste code and reuse libraries.
Also bear in mind that it is only until fairly recently that computer hardware vendors stopped distributing specifications with their products. I do not understand where the flawed logic that providing specifications and documentation for your products automatically means a vendor's fabrication processes will be leaked, and hence the vendor is out of business. It's a totally ridiculous (PR) excuse put for noncomplying vendors.
Doesn't Intel, AMD, SUN, to mention a few, release specifications for their processors? Why are they still in business then? And why isn't Tom, Dick and Harry cloning their processors?