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Xref: sserve comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware:34324 comp.unix.bsd:7068 Path: sserve!manuel.anu.edu.au!munnari.oz.au!uunet!spool.mu.edu!agate!curtis From: curtis@cs.berkeley.edu (Curtis Yarvin) Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware,comp.unix.bsd Subject: Re: Question on Diamond Clock Synthesizer Date: 25 Oct 1992 06:38:30 GMT Organization: CS Dept. Snakepit - Do Not Feed. Lines: 57 Message-ID: <1cdfd6INNkou@agate.berkeley.edu> References: <1992Oct19.082420.16353@Informatik.TU-Muenchen.DE> <1992Oct19.151409.24581@osf.org> <1992Oct24.181837.19994@Informatik.TU-Muenchen.DE> NNTP-Posting-Host: mamba.cs.berkeley.edu In article <1992Oct24.181837.19994@Informatik.TU-Muenchen.DE> roell@informatik.tu-muenchen.de (Thomas Roell) writes: > >2) I am opposed to the talk going on about Diamond beeing the > bad guys, and everybody else beeing good. I truely believe that STB > is giving away the info about the PLL only cause Diamond isn't. > Kind of little childs behaviour. This is a peculiar way of putting it. Diamond refuses to provide a certain service to their customers; therefore STB competes by providing that service to theirs. Around here, at least, this is the way business works. >I also cannot understand the talk about not buying diamond products. Well, if a product won't work with your software, I think that's a very good reason not to buy it. And if a product may not work with future software because the manufacturer may unilaterally decide not to support that software, I think that's also a very good reason not to buy it. This is, of course, my personal opinion. >That's ridiculous. Just because they didn't give you ALL the details? Some >examples here: > > - ATI doesn't give you infos about the NON 8514/A registers on > their boards, without letting you sign an agreenment. > > So what ? Not buying an ATI Ultra cause they didn't pass you every > detail? In fact, I would strongly recommend against buying an ATI Ultra now, for exactly that reason. While the Graphics Ultra does not have many features beyond the 8514/A standard, the new Ultra+ and Ultra Pro do - and command a higher price because of it. Those features will only be useful under systems that ATI chooses to support. It appears, for example, that OS/2 is not one of those systems. > - The i486 has some chiptesting opcodes which you only get > under a strict NDA. As this is not a feature that would be useful under any operating conditions I can imagine, I fail to see its relevance. I am not suggesting that Diamond is 'evil' for not releasing programming specs; I don't think anyone is suggesting that. Merely that they are following business practices that are out of date and counterproductive, and if they lose customers because of it I will not be the one crying. c