Where to get 1.6.3 firmware?

[Denis Vlasenko]

On 5 February 2003 14:12, James Harper wrote:
> Denis Vlasenko wrote:
> >On 5 February 2003 12:26, Martin Whitlock wrote:
> >>The obvious answer to this question is to write an NDA with
> >> Intersil. They might give you f/w access for dev purposes. Not for
> >>distribution.
> >
> >Do you say it is illegal to dump firmware out of the card
> >not for reverse engineering, just in order to upload it
> >in another card? That's nonsense... it's like not allowing
> >car owners to use newer oil in a car engine.
>
> Isn't it more like copying your friends version of windows XP, which
> they paid for, to replace your version of windows ME?

The difference is this:

Firmware:
=========
You bought a hardware. You pay the cost of it *AND* of included firmware.
Firmware is supposed to drive your hardware in a best fashion possible.
Unfortunately firmware can have bugs and needs to be updated.
It is in the interest of hardware vendor to give customers bugfixed firmware
to keep them happy. If you want to buy another hardware piece you pay again.
This assumes that hardware vendor in not a monopoly.

In short: hardware vendor earns money from selling *hardware*.
Firmware development is a burden for him.

Really clever vendor will disclose programming details and let Linux
folks write firmware, this will reduce vendor's expenses on firmware
development to zero. OTOH this may reveal too much design details to
the competitors :(

Software:
=========
You buy a software and pay for it. Subsequent service packs are free.
Next mayor version of the same software package may or may not be free
for you (or may be sold with discount).

In short: software vendor earns money from selling *software*.
--
vda