[libre-riscv-dev] Fwd: Preparations The Libre-RISCV SoC

[Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton]

> On Sat, Mar 30, 2019 at 3:44 PM Aleksandar Kostovic
> <alexandar.kostovic at gmail.com> wrote:

> "It is the year 2019 and it is not possible to buy a mass-produced
> laptop, tablet or smartphone where the user can replace all of its
> software, without loss of functionality.  Some processors are
> DRM-locked at the bootloader, whilst others have proprietary 3D
> Graphics, Video Processors and NSA-spying backdoor co-processors (such
> as the Intel "Management Engine").  There is no way for users to audit
> and trust the hardware or the proprietary software"

 too long.

"It is 2019 and it is not possible to buy a mass-produced
laptop, tablet or smartphone and replace all of its software
without loss of functionality.  Processor boot-loaders are DRM-locked,
WIFI, 3D Graphics and Video Processors are proprietary, and Intel's
processors contain NSA-spying backdoor "Management" Engines.

how's okaaay...

"Therefore, shocklngly, the only way to restore and engender trust is
to literally make a new processor - one that is developed
transparently and may be independently audited to the bedrock."

"what" we can adapt from what you wrote... oh hang on, jacob and i
wrote this many months ago:
 https://www.crowdsupply.com/libre-risc-v/m-class

cutting that down even more:

"So we are developing a a low-power, mobile-class, 64-bit Quad-Core
SoC at a minimum 800mhz clock rate, suitable for tablet, netbook, and
industrial embedded systems. Full source code and files are available
not only for the operating system and bootloader, but also for the
processor, its peripherals and its 3D GPU and VPU.  Details at
http://libre-riscv.org/3d_gpu/"

then if the people doing the review *have* time, they can go *to* that
page, see the links to mailing list, bugtracker, git repo, wiki etc.
(which i've just added), and corrected a link.

that's 132 words, which is a lot for a "single paragraph".

if you watch simon sinek's video, aleksander, you'll see that what you
wrote falls into what simon calls the "meh" trap :)  HP, Dell, they
all do it: they sell you on "what then how then why", it hits the
larger "thinking" cortex of the brain, and people go, "i hear you...
it just doesn't *feel* right".

whereas at around 16 minutes into the video he does an "apple" style
"why then how then what" and it's punchy as hell and i can't even
begin to explain the difference.  i'm *almost* seduced into buying
apple as a result :)

so the "why" is implied from the bit about there not being a
mass-produced system that users can replace all the software.
"engendering trust" is an important phrase to include as it links to
the whole thing about NLnet, as is the independent audit part.  in the
"what" it's mentioned *in summary* that the full source of the
hardware and software is available.

does that make sense?

l.