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 15:07:23 GMT
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Original-From:
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Carl G. Schaefer, Jr. <cgschaef@futurelinkincNOMORESPAM.com>
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Viewed:
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2628 times
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Jim,
Actually, I never thought about SEI -- I've taken one of their courses on
open systems. I think they might have some good info to contribute to this
thread (have we beaten the dead horse yet?).
After some more research I was actually thinking about the Software
Publishers Association (http://www.spa.org). They actually have some
publications on the discussion people are having on Lugnet. See
http://www.spa.org/publications/catalog/pg16.htm as an example.
Take care.
Carl
-----Original Message-----
From: Jim West [mailto:jwest@frii.com]
Sent: Tuesday, December 01, 1998 9:43 AM
To: cgschaef@futurelinkinc.com
Subject: RE: Re: legOS
Carl,
Are you possibly refering to SEI (Software Engineering Institute) ?
The Software Engineering Institute is a federally funded research and
development center (FFRDC) sponsored by the U.S. Department of Defense and
operated by Carnegie Mellon University. They develop models, frameworks,
diagnostics, methods, standards, techniques, and architectures that help
our customers to make measured
improvements in their software engineering capability.
At 09:34 12/01/1998 -0500, you 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).
>
> 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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