Re: Proposal: The DFSG do not require source code for data, including firmware
On Wed, Aug 23, 2006 at 08:03:39PM +0100, Mark Brown wrote:
> Within a Debian context people normally seem to use the term "firmware"
> to mean any binary blob that gets programmed into hardware. This could
> include things like register settings or FPGA images as well as programs
> to execute on embedded processors. I'm not sure if there are any
> instances of these other types in the upstream kernel, though.
FWIW (and a few days late) I did some searching for drivers in the
kernel (2.6.17.11 from kernel.org) which refer to FPGAs and found the
following:
drivers/usb/atm/ueagle-atm.c
drivers/media/video/bt8xx/bttv-cards.c
sound/pci/vx222/*
sound/pcmcia/vx/*
sound/pci/pcxhr/*
sound/pci/mixart/*
sound/drivers/vc/*
-- These load image via the standard kernel interface (hotplug)
drivers/media/video/stradis.c
drivers/net/wan/lmc/*
-- Loads FPGA image supplied by an ioctl
drivers/net/hamradio/yam.c
-- Loads firmware from const arrays in yam*.h
drivers/net/pcmcia/smc91c92_cs.c
-- Loads firmware from const array in ositech.h
drivers/usb/misc/emi26.c, emi62.c
-- Loads firmware from const array in emi26_fw.h / emi62_fw*.h
drivers/isdn/hardware/eicon/*
-- Loads firmware from file directly (?)
drivers/media/video/dabusb.c
-- From file I think. Driver is confusing.
arch/sh/boards/overdrive/fpga.c
-- Loads from missing file
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.
We deliberately load our FPGAs with different functionality at different
times and that isn't possible from ROM. The emi62.c sound driver seems
to do something similar - it loads different firmware for midi and spdif
modes!
Hamish
--
Hamish Moffatt VK3SB <hamish@debian.org> <hamish@cloud.net.au>
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