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> IBM released the PC with ... source code for the BIOS. Um, no they didn't. The BIOS was very much a blob. Compaq spent a significant amount of resources re
by LukeShu 11y ago
> IBM released the PC with ... source code for the BIOS.
Um, no they didn't. The BIOS was very much a blob. Compaq spent a significant amount of resources reverse-engineering the BIOS, which made the IBM-PC-compatible market possible.
- protomyth 11y agoYou're right that Compaq went to a lot of reverse engineering effort, userbinator is also right about IBM releasing the source code for their BIOS. They did it to prevent reverse engineering by tainting anyone exposed to the code. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoenix_Technologies https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoenix_Technologies
- LukeShu 11y agoHuh, I didn't know that. Thanks!
- userbinator 11y agohttps://archive.org/details/bitsavers_ibmpcpc150renceApr83_25494749 https://archive.org/details/bitsavers_ibmpcpc150renceApr83_2... Starts on page 337. They did it for the AT too (page 161): https://archive.org/details/bitsavers_ibmpcat150ferenceMar84_26847525 https://archive.org/details/bitsavers_ibmpcat150ferenceMar84...