Night owl, on the first point, I agree with you.
On the second point, standards come from lots of places. No one -- not JEDEC, not Intel, not Microsoft -- has AUTHORITY to set standards. In truth, the marketplace sets standards, which may start out as (or even remain) proprietary, and then, sometimes, the "standards bodies" ratify them. Sometimes after the fact. I don't know where future standards are coming from. Neither does anyone else.
By the way, the TI patent situation was much more recent than your assumption. It was just developing while I worked for TI, and that was 89 to 91. I think that some of those patents may STILL be in effect, and that TI may still be collecting royalties from them. |
