> On Mon, 31 Aug 1998 19:23:11 +1, "Hans Franke" <franke_at_sbs.de> wrote:
>>>does anybody know who has right now the rights for
>>>the KIM-1 design and the respective ROM code?
>>>Or more in general - is there any successor for
>>>the Commodore Semiconductor divison ?
> I did some research on this about 18 months ago in preparation for
> contacting Commodore's bankruptcy counsel to see about purchasing the rights
> to Commodore's 8-bit technology.
> Even though I read the Chapter 11 reorganization plan and Chapter 7
> liquidation motion, and my corporate counsel looked at the docs, it's really
> hard to trace the chain of asset transfers, since I could not find a
> specific list of those assets sold; only broad "all intellectual property"
> language was used.
> Collectively, Commodore's assets were sold to Escom (a German computer
> manufacturer) for $14 million, $4 million of which realted to CBM and $10
> million related to Commodore International Bahamas, Ltd. an affiliate of
> CBM. The former CSG operation located at 950 Rittenhouse Road in Norristown
> PA was purchased by GMT Microelectronics Corp., a company formed by former
> CSG management in order to purchase the chip-making assets. The purchase
> price was $4.3 million plus another $1 million to clear EPA liens. Assets
> included the plant, equipment, other inventory items at that location. Last
> year, I made a field trip to GMT and verified that they exist and are
> operating out of the old CSG building.
Did you talk to them ? Their website (
http://www.gmtme.com/index.html)
presents only a few new products - noting of the old stuff.
> The non-CSG assets stayed with Escom until they filed for receivership
> (bankruptcy), in 1996. The assets were then sold to a Netherlands-based
> company (Commodore NL??), who then sold the Amiga assets to Gateway (the
> Holstein cow people). I don't think that anyone truly knows who owns the old
> 8-bit assets. Commodore NL sells PeeCee compatible machines under the
> Commodore name, so I'd bank on Gateway owning them. If anyone on this list
> knows anyone at Gateway, now may be the time to use the relationship.
I think this is a formidable example for all our old (pre 1980)
toys - Almost all of the small (and even some of the big)
manufactiurers/designers have vanished. So who owns the design,
the ROM code, the spechial chip designs, the manuals and any
other soft ?
Gruss
H.
--
Ich denke, also bin ich, also gut
HRK
Received on Wed Sep 02 1998 - 05:57:10 BST