Subject:
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Re: legOS
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.robotics
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Date:
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Tue, 1 Dec 1998 13:49:30 GMT
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Original-From:
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Jim West <jwest@frii.com>
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Viewed:
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2665 times
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At 06:48 12/01/1998 +0000, Brett Carver wrote:
> Kekoa Proudfoot wrote:
> > Eric Hodges <lego-robotics@crynwr.com> wrote:
> > > Firmware is software. It doesn't matter if you burn software into
> > > ROM, store it on EPROM, store it as PAL settings, core memory
> > > values, etc. Software is software, and firmware is software.
> >
> > Is this your opinion? Or do you have something to back this with?
>
> I'll jump in here and take a shot.
>
> One definition of software vs firmware is that firmware talks directly
> to the hardware (setting bits in registers etc) while software doesn't.
I'd have to disagree on this point. I write in assembler which
manipulates register bits directly and is considered software.
Firmware is simply software that does NOT reside on magnetic media.
> This is related to another possible definition that firmware is, as
> such,
> 'hard coded' into the hardware (like in an EPROM) and can't (easily) be
> changed while software resides on (magnetic) media and can be
> overwritten at will with a new version.
>
> It doesn't matter what language it's written in. I've written both
> firmware and software in Pascal. It doesn't really matter what the
> program is doing (I've seen sorting code implemented in both firmware
> and software).
>
> The difference is more related to one of the definitions above.
>
> --
> Brett Carver
> brett@sr.hp.com
> (707) 577-4344
>
> "... it's a dessert topping. It's a floor wax. No, it's BOTH..."
Jim West
NIC Team Lead
MCI Worldcom
Jim.West@mci.com
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Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Definition of firmare [was: legOS]
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| Ok, my turn!!!! Hardware is the thing you can't change without a soldering iron or other tools. Software is what you think it is. Firmware is those things that are *both*: it's written like software, but you need to perform hardware-style actions to (...) (26 years ago, 1-Dec-98, to lugnet.robotics)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: legOS
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| (...) Is this your opinion? Or do you have something to back this with? -Kekoa (26 years ago, 30-Nov-98, to lugnet.robotics)
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