4 ms·

I found myself wondering what is actually lost if schematics like this get out. Are companies worried about counterfeit/copycat product? Are there major differe

I found myself wondering what is actually lost if schematics like this get out. Are companies worried about counterfeit/copycat product? Are there major differences in layout skill across the industry, such that Compal would want to prevent people learning from them? It looks like Dell was entitled to the schematics, so it shouldn't be that a customer could cut out the vendor. I'm sure it's not about preventing competent people from doing this kind of service on hardware they've bought. Is it more about making warranties work? Or something else?

userbinator 5y ago
My guess is that it's due to NDAs on the reference designs (from Intel) that these were originally derived from, and due to legal bureaucracy and such that no one wants to challenge, so they're "confidential" by default. If you've looked at other schematics from Compal, Inventec, Quanta, Wistron etc. they all have their own uniquely distinct style, but otherwise for a given platform they are all electrically very similar.
- DaiPlusPlus 5y ago
  How does it benefit Intel to keep reference designs confidential?
  - wildzzz 5y ago
    Because they only give you the design if you plan to buy a bunch of chips and pay them for support. It's a way to make money. Additionally, keeping the reference design under NDA reduces the risk of someone building an chip that is drop in compatible with Intel boards.
  - zargon 5y ago
    Intel is super secretive about everything, just because.
    - userbinator 5y ago
      They used to be far more open; I guess that was before the lawyers and manager-types started taking over the company. Here's the famous 440BX reference schematics: https://web.archive.org/web/19991010005207/http://www.intel.com/design/chipsets/designex/BXDPDG10.htm https://web.archive.org/web/19991010005207/http://www.intel.... Here are all of them, it looks like they started being closed with the 900 series chipsets; the 800 series (P4 era) were the last ones they offered plenty of documentation openly: https://web.archive.org/web/20040823181302/http://developer.intel.com/design/chipsets/schematics/ https://web.archive.org/web/20040823181302/http://developer....
  - mschuster91 5y ago
    Keep data sheets and reference designs confidential and your only customers will be large-volume companies able to shell out serious dollars upfront and with enough competent staff on hand. Hobbyists and small shops who require more assistance in getting up to speed are left to the scraps that the Raspberry Pi Foundation throws at us. Sorry for the sarcasm, but the situation really REALLY sucks and no one seems to care about it.

userbinator 5y ago

My guess is that it's due to NDAs on the reference designs (from Intel) that these were originally derived from, and due to legal bureaucracy and such that no one wants to challenge, so they're "confidential" by default. If you've looked at other schematics from Compal, Inventec, Quanta, Wistron etc. they all have their own uniquely distinct style, but otherwise for a given platform they are all electrically very similar.

DaiPlusPlus 5y ago
How does it benefit Intel to keep reference designs confidential?
- wildzzz 5y ago
  Because they only give you the design if you plan to buy a bunch of chips and pay them for support. It's a way to make money. Additionally, keeping the reference design under NDA reduces the risk of someone building an chip that is drop in compatible with Intel boards.
- zargon 5y ago
  Intel is super secretive about everything, just because.
  - userbinator 5y ago
    They used to be far more open; I guess that was before the lawyers and manager-types started taking over the company. Here's the famous 440BX reference schematics: https://web.archive.org/web/19991010005207/http://www.intel.com/design/chipsets/designex/BXDPDG10.htm https://web.archive.org/web/19991010005207/http://www.intel.... Here are all of them, it looks like they started being closed with the 900 series chipsets; the 800 series (P4 era) were the last ones they offered plenty of documentation openly: https://web.archive.org/web/20040823181302/http://developer.intel.com/design/chipsets/schematics/ https://web.archive.org/web/20040823181302/http://developer....
- mschuster91 5y ago
  Keep data sheets and reference designs confidential and your only customers will be large-volume companies able to shell out serious dollars upfront and with enough competent staff on hand. Hobbyists and small shops who require more assistance in getting up to speed are left to the scraps that the Raspberry Pi Foundation throws at us. Sorry for the sarcasm, but the situation really REALLY sucks and no one seems to care about it.