Re:Blobless Linux on Raspberry Pi
by nickpsecurity on Saturday January 14, 2017 @04:29PM
(#13400673)
That means it was a closed, proprietary system that was reverse engineered & emulated. Different from an open system that doesn't require that. Also more efficient in hardware if any clones port original design.
Re:Blobless Linux on Raspberry Pi
by pareidolia on Sunday January 15, 2017 @05:45AM
(#13403429)
You are incorrect. The documentation supplied with the C64 detailed schematics and ROM routines:
C64: http://www.classiccmp.org/cini/pdf/Commodore/C64%20Programme...
C128: http://www.pagetable.com/docs/Commodore%20128%20Programmer's...
Re:Blobless Linux on Raspberry Pi
by nickpsecurity on Sunday January 15, 2017 @10:24AM
(#13404370)
Did they give you copyright and patent licenses allowing you to do whatever you wanted with their tech? Or did a cloner have to hope the company would take no legal action?
Because that's still not equal to an open-source design where the licensing eliminates such risks.
It's been completely reverse-engineered, emulated, and documented, a lot more than can be said of the SoC in the RPi. Maybe in 30 years the same will happen to the latter, but I'm not too optimistic about that.