Comments 7

Re: The RK2020 Is Another Chinese Handheld Which Aims To Play Absolutely Everything

tekknik

@rjc-32 You'll note in that case that Connectix used the BIOS to develop an emulator, they did not release the BIOS. So they reverse engineered it and did not use the copy protected version. This is not the same as using the BIOS directly and I stated that if a company is doing this, it's a scumbag move, but legal.

In the case of both AMD and Intel they publish the instruction set [1], and both AMD and Intel implement each others. So there is no reverse engineering here so this point is not valid. The transistor layout and instruction set are not the same if that's what you're inferring. Either way, both are still IP.

Because the patents are expired. When you invent something you have 2 options, patent or not. If you don't want to patent it you don't have to publish the specs and then you just need to keep it secret, aka trade secrets. OR you apply for a patent and get 20 years of protection at the expense of publish your specifications. This does not make it right to steal someones work after the patent expired. How you damage them is in future sales. You notice the retro consoles coming out now? Why would you buy one when you can buy someone else's console that has more games? They also didn't pay the initial R&D costs or have anything to do with the development of these consoles. What they did is just connected a tracer and traced a circuit, slapped that into an FGPA, and sold it.

[1] https://www.intel.com/content/dam/www/public/us/en/documents/manuals/64-ia-32-architectures-software-developer-instruction-set-reference-manual-325383.pdf

Re: The RK2020 Is Another Chinese Handheld Which Aims To Play Absolutely Everything

tekknik

@rjc-32 it doesn’t matter what processor they are running in the chinese clone. what matter is the instruction set, which is IP. if you take this instruction set and implement it without permission you are stealing it. who cares what architecture the emulator is running on?

The BIOS is code just like game code. IFF you’ve reverse engineered a BIOS then you may have some legal standing here, Oracle just tested the signature of a function being copyrighted and have so far failed but if you use a real BIOS the yes IP infringement. This is why sony spent so much effort in getting PSX BIOS taken offline in the 90s as well.

For your homework read up on AMD licensing x86 from intel and intel licensing from AMD and specifically why neither one of them can just take the instruction set and implement it.

Re: The RK2020 Is Another Chinese Handheld Which Aims To Play Absolutely Everything

tekknik

@rjc-32 the CPU and the layout of a chip is IP and no arm processor was used in the NES. and the BIOS is software written by nintendo/sony/sega and is also IP and forms an interface layer with the hardware. none of this is open. and if you think emulation is legal then write an x86 emulator and sell it without giving intel money and see how quickly you get a phone call.