[HN Gopher] The WeeCee - Tiny Vortex86-Based DOS Gaming PC ___________________________________________________________________ The WeeCee - Tiny Vortex86-Based DOS Gaming PC Author : nickt Score : 64 points Date : 2021-11-19 19:39 UTC (3 hours ago) (HTM) web link (www.vogons.org) (TXT) w3m dump (www.vogons.org) | ryanmercer wrote: | Saw this via LGR's patreon earlier this week, I want one so bad. | kcb wrote: | The craziest thing is this guy built a soundcard from schematic | to pcb in hand in a section of a youtube video. | nickt wrote: | via LGRs video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USHvvSbYmJA | | rasteri also did a couple of build videos: Part 1: | https://youtu.be/aJEp4ZUG7BI Part 2: | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2P1E2vjpcRo | tmaly wrote: | That forum is what looks even more interesting than the hardware | being reviewed in that post. | gattilorenz wrote: | It is. It's also a community of packrats that have a copy of | every driver and bios under the sun, including huge dumps of | FTP archives that have been lost to the sands of time (e.g. NEC | or Acer's support FTP) | mrweasel wrote: | Vortex86 is just as interesting as the WeeCee. Surely they must | have an x86 licens, where did they get that? They don't appear to | have a license for AMD64, but could they get one? | zozbot234 wrote: | Vortex86 implements i586, which should surely be IP- | unencumbered by now? Why would they need a license? | shakna wrote: | > Vortex86 implements i586, which should surely be IP- | unencumbered by now? | | Even if you go from the launch date and not the last errata, | the i586 architecture is only 28 years old. In today's world | of copyright, that's practically an infant. | | To be clear of most patents, you generally need at least | thirty years, and copyrights are generally more than twice | that number. | | You will probably require a license from Intel. (Though | whether or not they care enough to enforce things is another | matter entirely). | gigel82 wrote: | I was always confused about patents, copyrights and | licenses when it comes to hardware. | | Surely if you do a (clean-room) implementation of hardware | that is interface compatible with existing hardware that is | ok? Isn't that how we got the IBM PC Clones? | shakna wrote: | > Isn't that how we got the IBM PC Clones? | | IBM encouraging developers to target their BIOS and not | the hardware, and BIOS clean room designs is where we got | the IBM PC clones - but that's still the world of | software. (Note: IBM managed to take clones by Eagle | Computer and Corona Data Systems off the market because | the software wasn't a clean room design). | | The IBM PC's pluggable design with already existing | standard ports made it easy to build clones, because it | wasn't the hardware that was being interfaced with. If | you could clone the BIOS and have that speak to your | components however you wanted, then you could make an IBM | compatible. | Teever wrote: | From my understand this is correct to a point but a more | pressing issue is that some specific implementations of | algorithms in hardware may be under patent. | | If this is the case it means a competitor can use an | alternative design that is less efficient at the cost of | space/heat but that can result in substantially less | competitive product. | badsectoracula wrote: | I can understand patents (though i thought it'd be 17-20 | years, not 30) but why would they need to worry about | copyright to make new implementation of the x86 instruction | set? | R0b0t1 wrote: | Using AMD as an example you shouldn't? But the oracle | ruling calls that into question. An instruction set is an | interface. | | But, that ruling is extremely whack as it means nobody | but the ISA originator can make an assembler, for | example. | monocasa wrote: | The final oracle ruling is that it was fair use. | | That being said, back in the day there was concern about | all of that, hence why a Z80 is binary compatible with an | 8080, but has different mnemonics. It's all LD this ST | that, as opposed to the 8080's MOV. | pantalaimon wrote: | Afaik they got it from SiS | fouc wrote: | > It's a mini PC capable of running MS-DOS and Windows off a | MicroSD card that plays well with tons of classic PC games and | software, boasting Sound Blaster Pro and Wave Blaster/GM | compatibility, along with SXGA 32-bit color graphics with VGA out | | https://circuitmaker.com/Projects/Details/rasteri/weeCee | snvzz wrote: | A pain re: no kicad or PDF schematics. | | I just gave up on looking at them. | tyingq wrote: | The SOM datasheet without having to fill out a form: | https://tech.icop.com.tw/manual/som304rd-vi_datasheet.pdf ___________________________________________________________________ (page generated 2021-11-19 23:00 UTC)