Changes between Version 23 and Version 24 of About/HAL

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Author:
mrenzmann (IP: 194.45.26.221)
Timestamp:
09/30/08 12:04:05 (2 years ago)
Comment:

First updates in response to the recently released HAL source. This page still needs further rewrite.

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  • About/HAL

    v23 v24  
    1515=== Is the HAL some kind of firmware? === 
    1616 
    17 Not exactly. The HAL performs tasks similar to that of a firmware, such as implementing an API to present the hardware to the driver in a nice, uniform fashion. But the term 'firmware' generally refers to code executed by an onboard microcontroller or DSP on the controlled device, while the HAL is executed on the host CPU.  
     17Not exactly. The HAL performs tasks similar to that of a firmware, such as implementing an API to present the hardware to the driver in a nice, uniform fashion. But the term 'firmware' generally refers to code executed by an onboard microcontroller or DSP on the controlled device, while the HAL is executed on the host CPU. 
     18 
     19[http://lwn.net/Articles/300758/ This post] gives further insight into this matter. 
    1820 
    1921=== Why is the HAL closed source? === 
    2426 
    2527At least the USA Federal Communications Commission (FCC) requires that any manufactured products have a mechanism for limiting transmission power and frequencies, and that these mechanisms are not easily modifiable by the consumer. If you are in a region that limits the number of frequencies, say, Japan, it is illegal to broadcast out of those assigned channels, even though the chip is capable of operating outside of the limited frequency band assigned by Japan. 
     28 
     29Despite these considerations, Atheros has released the HAL source code under the largely permissive ISC license on September 27, 2008. Read more about it [wiki:news/20080929/hal-source-code-released here].  
    2630 
    2731=== Isn't binary-only code EVIL? ===