[ILUG] Novell A Linux Leader? GPL 3 and

[Niall O Broin]

On 8 Feb 2006, at 00:05, Declan Moriarty wrote:

> They could hide as much gpl code as they chose inside the fpga,
> and nobody could ever find it! They can then construct a narrow
> set of commands (much like the numbers on your telephone) to
> interface with the GPL DRM code; Then patent the _interface_ and
> they will have pirated the gpl protected software, short circuited
> any protective license, and the part of their code explained in
> the patent need only be the interface to their cpu, from which
> they would profit. It's the perfect crime. They could insist that
> all code is proprietary, and who could argue when you hadn't seen
> it? Fpga, incidentally stands for Field Programmable Gate Array.
> Like PALs, you buy them blank and program them to be anything you
> want. Unlike Eproms, they can not be read.

Are FPGAs so large now, and have they such functional blocks available, 
that you could actually do that? You're talking upwards of 100M 
transistors to produce a modern processor + a big chunk of ROM.


Niall