a babyboard just holds the chip that contains the maps and run program for the ecu (that would normally be in the standard chip) that are then encrypted in a certain way depending on the tuner who wrote it. it then also holds a chip to un-encrypt the data so that it works.

that means that if the chip is copied, it would need to be put onto a babyboard that is compatible for it to work. in that way, tuners hope to protect their work from piracy by being the only ones that sell the compatible babyboards.

that is why you will not really find chips that are compatible with std ecu's or babyboards that contain special items like ALS, water injection control etc as the development time and money would all be lost when they would be copied and flogged off cheap on ebay.

in the case of a L8 ecu, it is basically a L6 ecu, but the addition of the babyboard (which is standard but has no encryption) gives it more memory so that bigger maps and more features can be included on the chip.

hth, but i cannot help on the question of WI or NOS