Open Stack

On 2020-01-13 07:16:30 -0800 (-0800), Dan Smith wrote:
[...]
> What does this matter though? If you're talking about firmware for an
> FPGA card, that's what you need to know in order to apply the correct
> firmware to it, independent of whatever application-level bitstream is
> going to go in there right?
[...]
> Either way, I'm not sure how the firmware for accelerator cards is any
> different from the firmware for other devices on the system. Maybe the
> confusion is just that Cyborg does "programming" which seems similar to
> "updating firmware"?
[...]

FPGA configuration is a compiled binary blob written into
non-volatile memory through a hardware interface. These similarities
to firmware also result in many people actually calling it
"firmware" even though, you're right, technically it's a mapping of
gate interconnections and not really firmware in the conventional
sense. In retrospect maybe I shouldn't have brought it up.

I wouldn't be surprised, though, if there *are* NFV-related cases
where the users of the virtual machines into which some network
hardware is mapped need access to alter parts of, say, an interface
controller's firmware. The Linux kernel has for years incorporated
features to write or rewrite firmware and other microcode for
certain devices at boot time for similar reasons, after all.
-- 
Jeremy Stanley
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