Re: Will VMS contribute to Microsoft's profits ?

From: Paul Sture (nospam_at_sture.homeip.net)
Date: 12/05/03 

Date: Fri, 05 Dec 2003 20:46:14 +0100

Bochnik, William J wrote:
>
> the link mentions something I didnt think of - flash cards - so do the flash
> card manufacturers pay or do the camera manufactureres (who format the flash
> as fat) pay.

http://www.microsoft.com/mscorp/ip/tech/fat.asp again:

The card manufacturers:

"A license for removable solid state media manufacturers to
preformat the media, such as compact flash memory cards, to the
Microsoft FAT file system format, and to preload data onto such
preformatted media using the Microsoft FAT file system format.
Pricing for this license is US$0.25 per unit with a cap on total
royalties of $250,000 per manufacturer."

But it is unclear to me what they mean by "per unit" here. Per device
which preformats and preloads data, or per flash card?

"A license for manufacturers of certain consumer electronics
devices. Pricing for this license is US$0.25 per unit for each of
the following types of devices that use removable solid state
media to store data: portable digital still cameras; portable
digital video cameras; portable digital still/video cameras;
portable digital audio players; portable digital video players;
portable digital audio/video players; multifunction printers;
electronic photo frames; electronic musical instruments; and
standard televisions. Pricing for this license is US$0.25 per
unit with a cap on total royalties of $250,000 per licensee.
Pricing for other device types can be negotiated with Microsoft."

Per consumer device for the items mentioned. I rather wonder what is
lurking in the "other device types" category. To tie it back into
another thread, car systems? Even toasters maybe?

OK, time to resurrect this one:

http://www.decus.de:8080/www/vms/fun/toaster.htmlx

"If SAP made toasters ..."

> This stinks all the way around. If they had insisted on licencing FAT it
> wouldnt have become ubiquitous. Now that it's ubuquitous, they have their
> hand out. Dirty pool.
> 

-- 
Paul Sture

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