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| Authored by: Ian Al on Monday, May 27 2013 @ 04:17 AM EDT |
Software is only ever an improvement on other software. The original software is
not a machine and is not patentable subject matter and neither is the improved
software.
I have been thinking about what a general purpose computer is. The Arduino Uno
is actually two general purpose computers and neither has a BIOS or equivalent
or any software. The Uno has two In Systems Programming interfaces; one for each
processor. The first has a program installed to make the USB socket work such
that the second processor can be loaded with Arduino programs. The second
processor has a bootloader program installed in it that allows it to load
programs from the first via the USB interface and autorun the programs whenever
the Uno is powered up.
The Raspberry Pi (B) is a complete System On a Chip (SOC) and is provided with
an HDMI video socket, an Ethernet socket, two USB sockets that can be used with
mouse and keyboard, audio Line Out and a socket for an SD memory card. It has a
JTAG programming interface (as provided with many ARM-based systems) and that
has been used to install a BIOS-like program. If you power the Pi up with a
screen, keyboard and mouse connected you get nothing. It does nothing. There is
no program to be run. The general purpose computer is complete and fully
functional. Parts of the Broadcom SOC are patented.
The BIOS-like program that is pre-installed will search for all the peripheral
devices connected to the ports and will run programs pre-installed by another
computer on the SD card. I usually plug in an SD card which has a complete
Debian Linux operating system and programs on it. Using Linux, I can install
more programs via the Ethernet port or via a USB WiFi stick.
I have not improved the Raspberry Pi general purpose computer by plugging in an
SD card with software files saved in it.
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Regards
Ian Al
Software Patents: It's the disclosed functions in the patent, stupid![ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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