On Friday 05 April 2002 20:30, James Oakley wrote:
On April 5, 2002 12:53 pm, Clayton Cornell wrote:
Has anyone else seen anything about this? I have only found the one mention of it in a recent Chip Outsider...
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Snipped from "The Chip Outsider" written by Dan Hutcheson, VLSI Research.
Microsoft has issued a class suit, going after the chip and equipment industry for violating licenses on its XP software. The suit argues that since Microsoft software is used in all chip equipment and that wafer production is a for-profit use that an additional license fee for each wafer processed should be paid. Chipmakers are incensed at the license tax of $1 per wafer pass, which would amount to roughly 10% of all processing costs.
April Fool's!
It should be noted that UNIX is still the king of chip design software. There was a "movement" a few years back to NT but most places ended up moving back to UNIX. I saw engineers threaten to quit over it.
I wouldn't worry, even if the story was true.
I should read closer too... normally Dan writes The Chip INSIDER. Doh! What tripped me up was the fact that I didn't get the newsletter until yesterday. I never connected it with a 1 April joke. Back to reality C.