On Thu, 03 Mar 2016 17:03:58 +0100 Paul Kocialkowski <pa...@replicant.us> wrote:
> Talking about FPGAs comes out of the blue here. Either way, the FPGA > design itself causes the same hardware freedom issues, so it's not an > any better candidate for a solution. Since FPGA have a purpose that > is not what is relevant for mobile devices, I wouldn't mention them > at all. It does indeed shift the problem lower down the stack, but if we're going to talk about hardware freedom issues, we'd rather stick to some guidelines, since otherwise it's only going to result in (merge) conflicts. Would RMS article on hardware freedom fit? If so, maybe a resistor with hardware freedom is less relevant than hardware freedom that applies to a CPU or controller. In the latter cases, the FPGA configurability gives practical freedoms, that can, at some efficiency costs, gives freedoms that do not even apply to ASICs. ASICs related freedom have a fundamental issue: You cannot modify an already manufactured ASIC[1]. With an FPGA, you can modify its configuration. That will make it act like the modified ASIC you want. References: ----------- [1]While modifying an already manufactured ASIC is technically possible, it's out of reach of most people due to its prohibitive cost. Denis.
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