[ale] The i2o Bus: A Conspiracy Against Free Software? (fwd)

[Ken Seefried]

Actually, there seems to be one primary ringleader: Intel.

My understanding is that the the I2O standard is built around having an
Intel i960 processor on the motherboard as an I/O processor to impliment
the "standard".  Thus, Intel gets to sell you not only your CPU and
(usually) your motherboard chipset, they get to sell you a second CPU
for the I/O processor.

Not that this is an all bad idea.  Many high performance I/O devices
(such as RAID controllers and laser printers) use the i960 to offload
the main CPU.  It's a pretty cool chip.

Unfortunately, the terms do look pretty ominous.

- Ken