Stuart wrote > "I think if you are trying to say that building a processor
(even
if it is a software based and not microcode based processor, as in the
instant case) is illegal, the folks at AMD would have quite a fair amount
to
teach you. "

They were able to do so, because of the license agreements that they had
originally signed in the early 80's when they were second sourcing the
Intel parts.  The license agreement gave them the right to use the basic
design of the then 8086, 80286, and follow on technologies.  In the mid
90's there were some pretty nasty lawsuits between AMD and Intel about
those same agreements.  I believe AMD nailed Intel on some patent
infringements,  in the end they settled by cross licensing some of the
technologies in question.  Perhaps in part because Intel was ready to start
working on IA-64.

There were also a series of lawsuits between General Instruments and Data
General over the Data General "Nova" instruction set.  I believe the GI
part was later discontinued.

As for an emulation of the classic instruction set, I doubt that HP would
be overly concerned,  even the PA-RISC instruction set may no longer be an
issue.  I suspect that you'd get nailed by Intel and HP if you tried doing
the IA-64.

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