When somebody would make a free processor,
There are free processors, today. They are written in HDL.
would it be possible to do that in such a way that it's possible to check that the hardware is the working-out of the drawings?
There are no drawings involved, as far as I know. Any drawing is an intermediate object file, thus not important in the overall design flow.
In software you can build your own binary and check the shasum, but in hardware this is not possible.
Also in software it is not possible, most of the time. The build often contains a timestamp, so your build won't match what you received. And if it is programmed in some media, likely you can't even checksum the binary you receive (think embedded systems).
Anyways, I don't see the point of your question: the same applies to physical object (3d-printed or otherwise manufactured): you get a free design and an object that is said to be the same. You just don't know.
Actually, I'm interested in discussion about this case; the CPU one is too theoretical to be interesting at this point in time.
Anyways, I take this chance to advertise the Open Risc Conference, where a number of free processor are presented. It's held at CERN, Switzerland, on Oct 10th and 11th. See orconf.org for details.
/alessandro
Hello Alessandro,
Op 16-09-15 om 12:20 schreef Alessandro Rubini:
When somebody would make a free processor,
There are free processors, today.
You are right.
They are written in HDL.
would it be possible to do that in such a way that it's possible to check that the hardware is the working-out of the drawings?
There are no drawings involved, as far as I know. Any drawing is an intermediate object file, thus not important in the overall design flow.
What I mean are the "sources". I see often the term "Verilog". Maybe HDL is the correct name.
In software you can build your own binary and check the shasum, but in hardware this is not possible.
Also in software it is not possible, most of the time. The build often contains a timestamp, so your build won't match what you received. And if it is programmed in some media, likely you can't even checksum the binary you receive (think embedded systems).
You are right, but there are solutions, see e.g.: https://wiki.debian.org/ReproducibleBuilds
Anyways, I don't see the point of your question: the same applies to physical object (3d-printed or otherwise manufactured): you get a free design and an object that is said to be the same. You just don't know.
My question is in other words, maybe still not perfect: are there ways to check if a physical object is the working-out of a HDL?
Actually, I'm interested in discussion about this case; the CPU one is too theoretical to be interesting at this point in time.
Why?
Anyways, I take this chance to advertise the Open Risc Conference, where a number of free processor are presented.
Interesting. Can you give links or other information?
It's held at CERN, Switzerland, on Oct 10th and 11th. See orconf.org for details.
With regards, Paul van der Vlis.
Il 2015-09-16 12:51 Paul van der Vlis ha scritto:
[...]
There are no drawings involved, as far as I know. Any drawing is an intermediate object file, thus not important in the overall design flow.
What I mean are the "sources". I see often the term "Verilog". Maybe HDL is the correct name.
Verilog and VHDL are languages for describing hardware. They are used to synthesize hardware in the same way as source code is compiled in object code.
[...]
My question is in other words, maybe still not perfect: are there ways to check if a physical object is the working-out of a HDL?
Is there a way to check if object code is working-out of a C++ source code?
Davide