You would have problems with licensing the 68k ISA.
I believe freescale currently owns the architecture, and still manufactures some 68k microcontroller cores.
I believe freescale currently owns the architecture, and still manufactures some 68k microcontroller cores.
Owns it how? 68060-- the last of 68k's designs-- was released in 1994. Any patents should now be expired.
> Owns it how? 68060-- the last of 68k's designs-- was released in 1994. Any patents should now be expired.
Sure, patents wouldn't be a barrier to clone the design and create an equivalent using the same patented ideas, but copyright still prevents you from copying the design, and will prevent copying significant parts of the design as well.
Shouldn't that already be problematic for the 68k projects in hardware through FPGAs? Apollo already does it and sells hardware, and the MiSTER project also does it by releasing FPGA designs for e.g. the Sega Genesis which has a 68k processor. Is it a different story if you embed 68k in an ASIC?