On Tue, Aug 29, 2006 at 10:07:55PM +0100, Mark Brown wrote: > On Tue, Aug 29, 2006 at 03:07:11PM +0200, Sven Luther wrote: > > On Tue, Aug 29, 2006 at 11:00:44PM +1000, Hamish Moffatt wrote: > > > > To those who consider ROM-less hardware cheap and nasty I suggest the > > > opposite is true. I design hardware (FPGAs) professionally for expensive > > > communications equipment. We avoid ROMs as much as possible, because > > > they are difficult to upgrade reliably and they are a waste of money. > > > Do you consider FPGA config files as programs, or would you say that the > > normal DFSG requirement for source applies to those also in order to be > > considered fit for debian/main ? > > > I am interested in your profesional opinion on this, since you clearly seem > > to > > either be, or in close contact to someone who is, an upstream author of such > > firmwares. > > Speaking as someone with experience of the software rather than hardware > side of this I'd call FPGA images hardware. From the point of view of > working with it it looks very much like hardware. That's just my > opinion, though.
Well, but it is stuff with sources. You could argue that actual hardware also has sources (the design document, schematics and routing files) though. > I'd also observe that newer FPGA chips often feature encryption support: > the hardware has a secret key blown into it during manufacturing which > must be used when building FPGA images to be loaded onto the hardware. Nice. Friendly, Sven Luther -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]