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Executor - a CHRP PowerMac clone?



Clifford T. Matthews (ctm@ardi.com) wrote:

:     John> I've heard many times how ARDI designed Executor from the
:     John> ground up, using clean room techniques, because of the
:     John> proprietory and secret nature of the Macintosh toolbox
:     John> ROMs. Hence programs which use certain undocumented features
:     John> of the ROMs will not work on Executor.

: I'm sure it sounds like an old song and dance to people who have
: followed us closely, but it's the truth and it explains questions that
: come up frequently, so you'll probably hear it more, too.

	<nodding>

	<deletia>

:     John> How then, do you explain the new Power Mac clones, from
:     John> companies like Radius? These machines are supposed to be
:     John> 100% Mac compatible. Do they reverse engineer the ROMs, do
:     John> they buy the ROMs from Apple, or has Apple made avaiable the
:     John> code for these ROMs in the "Open Reference Platform" or
:     John> something like that.

: Apple's official position is that they will not license any 68k based
: stuff, so we'll have to get a PPC emulator going before we can
: officially license Apples's software (unless they change their mind).
: Luckily, VCPU will make a PPC emulator relatively easy, *and* even
: without Apple's permission we can make Executor so that you will be
: able to drop a copy of System 7.5 on top of it and have it work.  That
: requires a lot of work -- more than the few engineers we currently
: have, *but* it's work that we understand and we have a tremendous
: framework to start with, so it's largely a matter of getting money for
: engineers, which is something else we're pursuing at MACWORLD Expo.

	Could Executor go one step further and emulate a CHRP-based system?  
This would open up some more possiblilites (ie OS/2-PPC if it's ever fully
released, Windows NT - maybe even in a Win95 window ;)  or Linux/PPC when it's
done)... 

	That sounds like the best way to go, and it would make Executor 
	the first multi-OS emulator (probably :)

:     John> I'd be interested to know what Radius and the other clone
:     John> maker(s) do in this regard.

: My understanding is that they not only license the ROMs, but they also
: license much more, too, including ASICs that are in such short supply
: that Gateway wasn't able to cut a licensing deal with Apple because
: they weren't able to turn out the ASICs quick enough.

	Ayee.  Apple isn't *really* opening up the Mac platform, is it?
(as in, it's impossible for anyone else to make a large number of Macs - 
unless they did something like license ARDI technology or something) 

	- Chad



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