Re: Proposal: The DFSG do not require source code for data, including firmware
On Thu, Aug 24, 2006 at 08:08:18AM +0200, Florian Weimer <fw@deneb.enyo.de> wrote:
> * Steve Langasek:
>
> >> I'd actually see some restriction with regard to interoperability
> >> (i.e. some reasonably documented interface between the firmware and
> >> the driver code), but getting this right is likely not worth the
> >> effort.
> >
> > Hmm, I'm not sure what that would look like at all; as someone else noted,
> > one generally doesn't talk to the firmware even, one talks to the device.
>
> The higher-layer protocol the device speaks to the driver is typically
> implemented by the firmware.
>
> But it turns out that what I want has not much to do with
> interoperability. The thing I'd like to rule out is that
> application-specific code is transferred to a device, and we do not
> provide source code for that device. For example, implementing OpenGL
> primitives (or JPEG decompression) on the GPU in sourceless firmware
> might be acceptable, but putting computer AI for games in there, or
> rendering a proprietary video format using it would be much harder to
> accept.
Note that there are more and more applications trying to use the power
of the GPU for computation. The hole should not be left open in the GR.
Mike
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