From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Maxim Cournoyer Subject: Re: Free firmware - A redefinition of the term and a new metric for it's measurement. Date: Mon, 13 Feb 2017 22:55:51 -0800 Message-ID: <87inod2rd4.fsf@gmail.com> References: <87tw8bjhqm.fsf@gmail.com> <2c7ae911-863f-4831-f024-060e5f899d3a@alaskasi.com> <87k2948d2q.fsf@gmail.com> <06cfad8d-0222-1c63-522d-013ecd2e6ce8@alaskasi.com> <874lzy4lq2.fsf@gmail.com> <20170213084231.GA16213@jocasta.intra> Reply-To: Workgroup for fully free GNU/Linux distributions Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/signed; boundary="=-=-="; micalg=pgp-sha256; protocol="application/pgp-signature" Return-path: In-Reply-To: (David Craven's message of "Mon, 13 Feb 2017 20:24:33 +0100") List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: gnu-linux-libre-bounces+gldg-gnu-linux-libre=m.gmane.org@nongnu.org Sender: "gnu-linux-libre" To: David Craven Cc: guix-devel , John Darrington , Workgroup for fully free GNU/Linux distributions List-Id: guix-devel.gnu.org --=-=-= Content-Type: text/plain David Craven writes: >> If the attacker *is* vendor who supplies the proprietary device then they would >> not have to reverse engineer it. > > You can always choose not to apply the vendors update. If for example > the company you initially trusted with by purchasing their device gets > bought by another company or you have some other reason to stop > trusting it. CEO changed, their website was hacked or whatever. > Either ways, as long as it's opaque, either shipped in a (semi) fixed state or loaded at runtime, it's not auditable, so there's nothing too interesting to be discussed in regards of trust or freedom. The later at least doesn't clutter our view (and the Linux git tree) -- blobs have grown from ~10 MiB in Linux 2.6.33 [0] to 158 MiB (du -sh on a checkout of the the linux-firmware git tree [1] (pruned from its .git)) >> A recommended read for anyone interested in the idea of free hardware! >> Thanks for sharing. > > Don't know if you've heard of sifive [0]. If there is a startup that > has the potential to create lasting change in the semiconductor > industry, my money is on them... :) I should be getting one of the > first riscv boards soon! > > [0] https://www.sifive.com/ I had followed some earlier developments but had lost track recently! I'm happy to see that they have released the sources of their microcontroller chip design. Apparently the design (Apache licensed) is described using a tool/language called Chisel, which is Scala based and can generate two flavors of Verilog as well as a C++ version for simulation purposes. Interesting times! Maxim [0] https://www.fsfla.org/ikiwiki/anuncio/2010-03-Linux-2.6.33-libre.en [1] https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/firmware/linux-firmware.git --=-=-= Content-Type: application/pgp-signature; name="signature.asc" -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- iQIzBAEBCAAdFiEEJ9WGpPiQCFQyn/CfEmDkZILmNWIFAliiqfgACgkQEmDkZILm NWISGQ/+LG9XLXh5OT49vSfwqSMtniW7/lf2AW0VVPCCrt7KYFjXtQPUT0yAZEr3 l8djIM/WXI52our+W4h1bF5UtdKIqYejTrlcP3WyqdAICMQBZlwFUjUU5iW56Gn0 HdE97gwOEw+FUXTOPX0vFYBNI25Ledf05uv75kzcoEmD/GVmvAnkSL82AA1Yr4wE mY3omq/nmH7fMpB65InlvyNC/6QyhJFCHNuzH+/BDOY3BSbrbV2YL4iAiw2uCSSL gR1xyuYm+EgVNFl4rNCAFJnqSSwm9B1B01S4OYoeQj193HY/4yF7J4qpspyR2+cT f3RydbrAvSrN/ApxEzv4eKPu4VqW4sMAyOzp8bx1zhRYS1J1CbSd1SrYLiKzVx/7 ai/gSqpqwdlHIZUoMuSKQdgfhpV3xe9m2IR13cOwyrOhSYfihZhMHG5DI8KGbxgT 1ahRu7fEfXL4ETMAsZHNaF81SN1XJd+y5pt4efec0hL7J4nFMXmieV95JMJ8Mbw9 Vj4EvULQIC3+r4RYSHSlPqvfJYkJYepLveeFV9AXsViM6UKvZ7bqfJblUM5cLMa5 2hEPMVpAXL6Www+eN/dZ6FRnZWwFo/qbHef2kkVFHmf66KIS3OeAioX7XQCC7TV3 hr6NSk8NdDtcsqchjlU4V/gkFbl7QcsfriWqkaAbykDtqrxxzns= =lNEW -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --=-=-=--