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A comment on New Raspberry Pi 4 Firmware Lowers Temperature by 3-5°C. Parent comment

Re:New Raspberry Pi 4 Firmware Lowers Temperature by 3-5°C by mjg59 on Sunday June 30, 2019 @08:53PM (#20321618)
Basically all USB 3 host controllers run firmware of some description. Some can be updated in the field, some can't. You pretty much can't get away from proprietary code if you want USB 3, but in most cases it's hidden from you.
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Re:New Raspberry Pi 4 Firmware Lowers Temperature by 3-5°C by LeonM on Monday July 01, 2019 @04:46AM (#20323546)
Yep, the same goes for any BT, WiFi or storage controller chip. You can download the specs for most protocols, you might even be able to the get datasheet for the controllers, but writing a new (FOSS) firmware for the chip would be a huge undertaking.
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Re:New Raspberry Pi 4 Firmware Lowers Temperature by 3-5°C by ambicapter on Sunday June 30, 2019 @09:04PM (#20321669)
Why is that? Is USB 3 a proprietary spec?
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Re:New Raspberry Pi 4 Firmware Lowers Temperature by 3-5°C by opencl on Sunday June 30, 2019 @09:59PM (#20321891)
The spec isn't proprietary, you can download all 482 pages of it right here[1]. It's just that a USB controller needs firmware and none of the vendors making USB3 controller chips have open sourced their firmware. Most chip vendors are not exactly huge fans of open source and likely consider portions of the firmware to be trade secrets.

[1] https://www.usb3.com/whitepapers/USB%203%200%20(11132008)-fi...

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Re:New Raspberry Pi 4 Firmware Lowers Temperature by 3-5°C by mjg59 on Sunday June 30, 2019 @10:50PM (#20322103)
No, it's just complicated - easier to implement it on a reasonably general purpose core with firmware than to bet on getting it right first time in dedicated hardware.
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