nprofile1qy2hwumn8ghj7un9d3shjtnddaehgu3wwp6kyqpqlksxw7gqy3tyvzvzv4wn0he6045z7k68nhnlec9tz4njkk3xdfmqaxvklh (nprofile…vklh) GNU/翠星石 (nprofile…vqps)
The FSF doesn't say that. You say that.
"The ethical issues of free software arise because users obtain programs and install them in computers; they don't really apply to hidden embedded computers, or the BIOS burned in a ROM, or the microcode inside a processor chip, or the firmware that is wired into a processor in an I/O device. In aspects that relate to their design, those things are software; but as regards copying and modification, they may as well be hardware" https://www.fsf.org/campaigns/free-bios.html
A ROM can contain software, such as in the case of an EEPROM, which can be electronically reprogrammed. However, the microcode embedded in a CPU’s MROM is not software — it is physically etched into the silicon as part of the chip’s design and cannot be modified without completely redesigning and remanufacturing the chip.
An MROM is a section of the circuit where the manufacturer permanently fixes a binary sequence during fabrication by connecting or leaving disconnected specific silicon pathways — similar to fuses, but at the level of lithographic mask design. That is to say, the microcode is not executable software but hardwired logic: a behavior physically implemented in the chip’s design through fixed connections in the silicon. The CPU does not execute it as a program but operates according to a finite state machine implemented directly in hardware, which determines step-by-step how to internally execute certain complex instructions.
Microcode updates loaded at boot time do not modify the physical MROM or the hardwired microcode — instead, they overwrite a small internal volatile memory or cache that temporarily alters the CPU's behavior. Such software is often proprietary and potentially malicious.
That’s why you have free BIOSes like GNU Boot: https://gnu.org/software/gnuboot
GNU tar :gnujihad:
npub1pm…gvf33
2025-05-31 12:56:36 UTC
in reply to nevent1q…9z25
Author Public Key
npub1pm2tdfemy0er7c587leasvl35ekd8d3psd08a9csa9mu66664yhswgvf33Seen on
wss://relay.ditto.pubPublished at
2025-05-31 12:56:36 UTCEvent JSON
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