It's not like they would get away keeping the details a secret...
Scandalism like yours is sure to insure that tons of people are willing to
work full tilt on the project, even if it involves reverse engenering
stuff.
On Fri, 31 Oct 1997, Andre Derrick Balsa wrote:
> Hi,
>
> About the Merced: the probability of Linux users getting advance
> information from Intel on the Merced is zero. Moreover we would need
> information on IA-64 technology and their "EPIC" instruction set to get
> a version of gcc working, even before we get a Linux kernel working on a
> Merced.
>
> Unless of course we use Merced's x86 compatible mode, and accept to take
> a performance hit of 70%, which would make Linux look like a slouch next
> to an NT machine running IA-64 code natively. Given the "friendly"
> relationship between Intel and Microsoft, we can expect the first Merced
> machines shipped in 1999 will be running version 5.0 or 6.0 of NT, and
> Linux 3.0 or 4.0 for Merced will be available about 3 years later, when
> it will not be considered a strategic menace anymore.
>
> :(
>
> Andrew
>