Subject:
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RE: 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 14:34:33 GMT
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Original-From:
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Carl G. Schaefer, Jr. <cgschaef@=spamcake=futurelinkinc.com>
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Viewed:
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2521 times
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Jim,
What is the source of the definitions you've provided? Also, has anyone
investigated the definitions of these terms as defined by the Software
Industry Alliance? (I believe that is the name of the organization).
Carl
-----Original Message-----
From: Jim West [mailto:jwest@frii.com]
Sent: Tuesday, December 01, 1998 9:11 AM
To: lego-robotics@crynwr.com
Subject: Fwd: Re: legOS
Here are some official defintions:
MICROCODE: A sequence of microinstructions that is fixed in
storage that is not program-addressable, and that
performs specific processing functions.
1) The lowest-level instructions that directly control a
microprocessor. A single machine-language
instruction typically translates into several microcode
instructions.
In modern PC microprocessors, the microcode is
hard-wired and can't be modified. Some RISC
designs go one step further by completely eliminating
the microcode level so that machine instructions
directly control the processor. At the other end of the
spectrum, some mainframe and minicomputer
architectures utilize programmable microcode. In this
case, the microcode is stored in EEPROM, which
can be modified. This is called microprogramming.
2) Some people use microcode as a synonym of firmware.
FIRMWARE: Software that is embedded in a hardware device that
allows reading and executing the software, but does
not allow modification, e.g., writing or deleting data
by an end user. (188) Note 1: An example of firmware
is a computer program in a read-only memory (ROM)
integrated circuit chip. A hardware configuration is
usually used to represent the software. Note 2: Another
example of firmware is a program embedded in an erasable
programmable read-only memory (EPROM) chip, which program
may be modified by special external hardware, but not by
an application program.
SOFTWARE: 1. A set of computer programs, procedures, and associated
documentation concerned with the operation of a data
processing system; e.g. , compilers, library routines,
manuals, and circuit diagrams. [JP1] 2. Information
(generally copyrightable) that may provide instructions for
computers; data for documentation; and voice, video, and
music for entertainment or education.
VAPORWARE: A sarcastic term used to designate software and hardware
products that have been announced and
advertised but are not yet available.
DRIBBLEWARE: Software characterized by frequent updates, fixes,
and patches. The term is somewhat derogatory,
indicating software that was released without sufficient
testing or before all features could be added. With the
intense market pressure to release software products
as soon as possible, and with the increased ease of
updating software via Internet downloads,
dribbleware is becoming the norm rather than the
exception.
BLOATWARE: A sarcastic term that refers to software that has lots
of features and requires considerable disk space and
RAM. As the cost of RAM and disk storage has
decreased, there has been a growing trend among
software developers to disregard the size of
applications. Some people refer to this trend as
creeping featuritis. If creeping featuritis is the
symptom, bloatware is the disease.
> At 07:09 12/01/1998 +0000, Brett Carver wrote:
> > Paul Speed wrote:
> > > ... where is the line between firmware and microcode drawn?
> > > Or is microcode also considered firmware?
> >
> > I'm not going to touch the legal issues being talked about, but let me
> > try to address the technical ones.
> >
> > A micro-processor (CPU) is composed of a bunch of registers, adders,
> > buffers, memory I/O locations, etc. In order for anything to take
> > place, bit patterns (representing data) needs to be moved around thru
> > these parts. A data value must be moved from memory (whos address must
> > be computed) and into a register. This must be repeated for a second
> > value. Then they must be sent thru the adder and back into a third
> > memory location. Thus you have A = B + C.
> >
> > It is the responsibility of the microcode to handle all that.
> >
> > The next level up would be the firmware. This is software written in an
> > assembled or compiled language (compiled into microcode instructions)
> > that do the work of talking to the keyboard, display, disk drive etc.
> > When you turn a machine on, it's the firmware (in the form of a
> > bootstrap program) that gets things going so that the machine will
> > respond.
> >
> > At some point the firmware will load some kind of an operating system
> > (OS). On some simple machines the firmware and OS may be the same
> > thing. But for something like a PC the OS is the environment in which
> > software can be run to do useful work (DOS, Windows '95, etc).
> >
> > The final (for this discussion) level is the software application. This
> > is your Doom game or spreadsheet or whatever.
> >
> > It's ALL software. The difference is what level of abstraction from the
> > underlying hardware each operates in, and what media it resides on.
> >
> > I could go on, but I've probably already put half of you to sleep...
> >
> > :-)
> >
> > --
> > Brett Carver
> > brett@sr.hp.com
> > (707) 577-4344
Jim West
NIC Team Lead
MCI Worldcom
Jim.West@mci.com
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | Fwd: Re: legOS
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| Here are some official defintions: MICROCODE: A sequence of microinstructions that is fixed in storage that is not program-addressable, and that performs specific processing functions. 1) The lowest-level instructions that directly control a (...) (26 years ago, 1-Dec-98, to lugnet.robotics)
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