Hamish Moffatt wrote:
It's not at all clear to me that the type-approval process depends on security by obscurity in the firmware. Some manufacturers may think it does, but I haven't seen where FCC requires that.And 4. They're not allowed to by regulations, eg wireless hardware whose firmware cannot be distributed by FCC rule.
Note also that the Radio Amateurs on the list want to operate this hardware outside of its type-approval and have the legal authority to do so.
Maybe, maybe not. A lot of the processors come with it on board whether you want it or not, many of the ones that don't have an expensive (in pin-count) external memory bus.I'm going to disagree (violently) here. FLASH costs money, which drives up costs to consumers directly.
In general the FLASH is being loaded via JTAG, and the RAM is being loaded via JTAG. No difference. You can write a device with completely wedged software via JTAG.Further, if you want to support firmwareupgrades, 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.Are you sure you don't mean ROM? In general, FLASH systems are designed to upgrade in place.
As a matter of fact, Linux has drivers for some motherboard FLASH chips under the MTD stuff. I don't know who uses them.As a follow on, have you ever seen a PC motherboard whose BIOS can be upgraded from linux?
Thanks Bruce
Attachment:
smime.p7s
Description: S/MIME Cryptographic Signature