Resolved: firmware is not software

Resolved: firmware is not software

Posted Aug 30, 2006 11:51 UTC (Wed) by slef (subscriber, #14720)
In reply to: Resolved: firmware is not software by dlang
Parent article: Resolved: firmware is not software

> you say that firmware isn't maintainable, what do you need to do with it?

Aye, there's the rub: You don't really know until you need to do it.

Maybe you need to adapt it, to make the device to behave differently, in order to meet your needs. Maybe you need to study it, in order to improve support for other similar devices from that manufacturer. Maybe you just want better performance on one aspect. Maybe you need to share it with someone else with a similar device who wants a similar adaptation.

Or, you point out one reason yourself:

> you don't expect a device to have it's interface with the system changing on you

I've seen devices where there's a choice of N firmwares that you can upload and some of them seem to have different interfaces to the others, using different drivers on the kernel side. Maybe we'd like to make all the firmwares for that device use a stable interface? We could do that if we could maintain them.

You're quite right that uploading each time is better in some ways to flashing, but some dealers will flash devices for you if the alternative is a 'not fit for purpose' return of goods, so it's not clear cut.

---

(Log in to post comments)