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 14:40:22 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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2500 times
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At 09:34 12/01/1998 -0500, Carl G. Schaefer, Jr. wrote:
> 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).
Government definitions, Websters and other (that I could locate) on-line
dictionaries.
>
> 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
Jim West
NIC Team Lead
MCI Worldcom
Jim.West@mci.com
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | 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 (...) (26 years ago, 1-Dec-98, to lugnet.robotics)
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