From owner-freebsd-smp Thu Jul 24 07:43:17 1997 Return-Path: Received: (from root@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.5/8.8.5) id HAA02036 for smp-outgoing; Thu, 24 Jul 1997 07:43:17 -0700 (PDT) Received: from star.cirrus.com (star.cirrus.com [141.131.7.10]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.5/8.8.5) with SMTP id HAA02027 for ; Thu, 24 Jul 1997 07:43:15 -0700 (PDT) Received: from ss563.corp.cirrus.com (ss563.corp.cirrus.com [141.131.8.55]) by star.cirrus.com (8.6.12/8.6.12) with ESMTP id HAA00593 for ; Thu, 24 Jul 1997 07:43:14 -0700 Received: from elbert.colorado.cirrus.com (elbert.colorado.cirrus.com [198.90.142.11]) by ss563.corp.cirrus.com with ESMTP id HAA29907 (8.7.5/IDA-1.6 for ); Thu, 24 Jul 1997 07:43:12 -0700 (PDT) Received: from longs.colorado.cirrus.com (longs.colorado.cirrus.com [198.90.142.55]) by elbert.colorado.cirrus.com with SMTP id IAA29566 (8.6.12/IDA-1.6 for ); Thu, 24 Jul 1997 08:43:10 -0600 Received: by longs.colorado.cirrus.com (4.1-Colorado/2.00) id AA02450; Thu, 24 Jul 97 08:43:08 MDT Date: Thu, 24 Jul 97 08:43:08 MDT From: clintw@colorado.cirrus.com (Clint Wolff) Message-Id: <9707241443.AA02450@longs.colorado.cirrus.com> To: smp@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Lots 'o PCI slots Sender: owner-freebsd-smp@FreeBSD.ORG X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk > The I2O Sig is at: > http://www.i2osig.org/ > > I don't think releasing technical info about the I2O spec is really > any different than not releasing info about a RAID controller or a > proprietary system bus. Many companies still want NDAs for their > hardware specs; this is just a `big company' that has lots of little > companies (like IBM and Intel :) This doesn't mean that I like it, > nor do I even remotely resemble a lawyer. It would be much better if > the specs were $30 and available to everyone (like the PCI spec). > Hopefully in a few years it will be that way. > <<>> Just to poke my two cents worth in here... I believe the I2O Sig isn't trying to get rich selling specs and memberships, just trying to pay their bills... Charging Intel or MicroSoft $2000 to join provides the companies a method to formally write off the costs without the bookeeping required for two hours of this engineer's time or four hours of that secretaries... I suspect a the FreeBSD group could work out an equitable arrangement with the I2O sig to allow a core team to develop the system and distribute the source code... I'd even be willing to kick in some cash to cover the membership fee (but not the whole thing... Sorry :)... With all the discussions about legal/illegal to do it, has anyone asked I2O? Well... Back to lurking... clint