On Mer, 2003-05-21 at 01:34, Ralf Baechle wrote: > > of the base MIPS instruction set. If one wants to live without them, > > one can either rig a compiler to emit multi-instruction sequences instead > > of lwr/lwl to do the appropriate shifts and masks (which is slower on all This would seem the sane approach. > Technically you're right ... In reality lwl/lwr are covered by US patent > 4,814,976 which would also cover a software implementation. So unless MIPS > grants a license for the purpose of emulation in the Linux kernel ... They would need to grant a license for general GPL use, the GPL itself does not intend to allow other restrictions that would make the code non free. There are a billion examples of prior art for software fixing up of exceptions and software emulation of alignment fixups however. Maybe MIPS can clarify their position officially.
