加利福尼亚一家法院上周宣布,微处理机芯片上的微代码指令可以受版权法保护。这一判决预期将成为微处理机发展史上的一个里程碑,它可能有助于吓阻对微处理机设计的明目张胆的抄袭行为。虽然美国国会已于1980年把计算机程序纳入了美国版权法的保护范围,但微代码的地位却仍不清楚(所谓微代码就是规定处理机的各部分如何执行一项特定操作的指令组)。同其它任何程序一样,可以设计出各种不同的指令组来完成同一项操作内容。上周的裁决把微代 A California court announced last week that microcode instructions on microprocessor chips could be protected by copyright laws. This decision is expected to be a milestone in the history of microprocessor development, and it may help to discourage blatant plagiarism in the design of microprocessors. Although the U.S. Congress had incorporated computer programs into the protection of U.S. copyright law in 1980, the status of microcode has remained unclear (the so-called microcode is a group of instructions that stipulate how each part of the processor performs a particular operation). As with any other program, various instruction groups can be designed to accomplish the same operation. Last week’s ruling took micro generations