On Sat, Dec 11, 2004 at 04:43:48PM -0800, Bruce Perens wrote: [..] > There are a number of reasons that a device's firmware won't generally > be opened to us: > > 1. The manufacturer's concerns regarding the proprietary nature of > information about their device that is below the bus. > 2. The fact that misprogramming the device at that level can damage the > hardware. > 3. They aren't going to want to support more firmware versions than they > have to.
And 4. They're not allowed to by regulations, eg wireless hardware whose firmware cannot be distributed by FCC rule. [..] > A good hardware design would put this code in FLASH on the board. If you [..] I'm going to disagree (violently) here. FLASH costs money, which drives up costs to consumers directly. Further, if you want to support firmware upgrades, you need to find a VERY robust process else you have huge technical support and repair issues, not to mentioned unhappy customers. I'm an EE working on industrial telecommunications equipment and I always argue for putting as little as possible in FLASH, so that we can upgrade it easily later. Avoid shipping non-upgradable components at all cost, because those components are rarely bug free upfront. As a follow on, have you ever seen a PC motherboard whose BIOS can be upgraded from linux? No, you have to find floppy disks or boot Windows. Lack of FLASH firmware is definitely a convenience too. Hamish -- Hamish Moffatt VK3SB <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
