Re: any interest in JIT for bpf and npf_ncode?

[Steven Bellovin <smb%cs.columbia.edu@localhost>]

On Jan 4, 2012, at 4:16 42PM, Alexander Nasonov wrote:

> Darren Reed wrote:
>> This is probably quite important for NPF as it moves NPF away from
>> using the byte
>> code method. This is important for anyone thinking of hardware
>> devices using NPF
>> as NPF seems dangerously close to what Checkpoint patented for
>> Firewall-1 back
>> in 1995.
> 
> It moves NPF to another parent minefield I think ;-)
> The patent you mentioned is quite old. Hasn't it expired already?
> 

If it's 5,606,668 -- the only 1995-or-earlier patent assigned to Checkpoint
that I found in a *very* quick search -- no, it has about two more years left.
It was filed on December 15, 1993, and (in the U.S.) lasts for 20 years from
filing.  


                --Steve Bellovin, https://www.cs.columbia.edu/~smb