McIntyre: Firmware - what are we going to do about it?

Posted May 13, 2022 11:41 UTC (Fri) by immibis (subscriber, #105511)
In reply to: McIntyre: Firmware - what are we going to do about it? by pizza
Parent article: McIntyre: Firmware - what are we going to do about it?

A mask ROM is essentially hardware. Nobody can change it - you are stuck with it, including all bugs. Asking it to be free is like asking a logic gate to be free. You could also see it as a lookup table (microprograms in chips like the 6502 are very lookup-tabley) for an algorithm implemented in hardware.

On the other hand, replaceable firmware is something that the manufacturer can change but you can't, and that's pretty unfair. And when the firmware upload is mandatory, and especially if it's also signed, then they get to abuse copyright to make it effectively illegal to use their hardware at all without their permission.

McIntyre: Firmware - what are we going to do about it?

Posted May 14, 2022 2:47 UTC (Sat) by pabs (subscriber, #43278) [Link]

With firmware that is always uploaded on boot, usually you get a choice about which version you use, which is better than the case of firmware stored on the device, where often the upgrade mechanism is secret, or the upgrade mechanism prevents downgrades.