3 ms·

Why are instruction sets copyrighted?

• origin_path 4y ago
  Because it takes a lot of creative and skilled effort to design one.
  • codedokode 4y ago
    Does it mean that emulators like qemu are illegal? They are using instruction sets without permission.
    • origin_path 4y ago
      That's a good question! Hopefully it never goes to court.
• thereddaikon 4y ago
  Its not the list of named instructions that are copyrighted. Its the ISA which describes how those instructions actually work which is.
  • jecel 4y ago
    Intel actually bothered to copyright the mnemonics for the 8080 assembly language, so Zilog used the same binary instructions for its Z80 but different names at the assembly level. They had many more instructions, so having a different naming scheme (LD for a lot of stuff that were different names in the 8080) helped keep the complexity reasonable. http://popolony2k.com.br/xtras/programming/asm/nemesis-lonestar/8080-z80-instruction-set.html http://popolony2k.com.br/xtras/programming/asm/nemesis-lones...