#Credit Card Protection
4 messages in this thread
Ben, Ben, Ben, Ben…. <dope>
No, I'm not talking about ROM, I'm blue-skying along with the rest of you.
I'm talking about a system on a chip; a complete, dedicated co-processor
designed to do what it does best. A sort of plug-in computer to act in concert
with your system. Feed it data and it spits out data with nary a worry about
what is going on inside. I doubt very much that people can reverse engineer a
custom system in their basements. Imagine a PCLO box with all the necessary
ram and support in their, along with a _custom_ CPU dedicated to wringing the
best out of your rommed software.
A sort of single minded transputer system, while the base unit retains the
ability to act on it's lonesome, running regular software, doing the necessary
I/O, etc, while _your_ plug-in is dedicated to one thing only, taking data
input through the base unit, slicing and dicing, then telling the base unit,
'here's the board you told me to make'.
Doug
Gee….. NOW we're talking expensive! <shaddup!> –Ben–
Ben,
Hideously expensive. At least under today's level of technology. But the
point is _future_ methods or theft prevention, correct?
The nicest thing about blue-skying is not having to consider the price or
even if it is currently feasible.
If you stop to consider the history of something as mundane as the digital
watch you'll see that I'm projecting into the not too distant future. Look at
CPU prices. My first Z-80 was purchased for about $325. I've seen them
available nowadays for $1.50 apiece. And that's _with_ several years of
inflation. Imagine what would become commonplace if you could not only
optimize the software, but the hardware that runs it. Ah! Diversity without
confusion! It allows for everything from someone's simple BASIC program to
those dedicated applications, and gives the individual a way to tailor his
system to individual needs without locking him out because he happens to like
being different.
Think of having a base unit that can handle a variety of data busses and is a
computer in its own right. Like graphics? Plug in a dedicated paintbox.
Number crunching spreadsheet? Plug that in an go. Got a disk you want to use?
use that, or the system Mass Storage device. Or write your own. The solution
is not to force everyone into lockstep, forcing them to suckle from some
universal teat. Give them options. Let them choose for themselves. It may
even force them to do some thinking on their own, which is something to be
desired.
Doug
I like it.