13 Nov
2011
13 Nov
'11
11 a.m.
I would also say that closed-source design
implementation tools
aren't as abusive towards the users as you might think; it's really
just a proprietary translation using optimization algorithms they've
spent millions of dollars on.
Note I would be satisifed with documentation on the bitstrings; they
are welcome to keep their silly-ass optimization algorithms to
themselves so long as they tell me enough to let me use the hardware.
This is like a CPU whose machine code is undocumented "just use our
compiler", `justified' by saying the compiler has had a lot of work put
into it. That justifies, maybe, keeping the compiler closed; it does
not justify keeping the machine code closed.
This also has nothing to do with how abuseive it is to expect customers
to either turn the security of their machines over to the vendor, a
vendor which has no particular reason to care about getting it right
and no particular expertise in doing so, or set up a sacrificial
machine to run their binary blob on.
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