Post AzCBZbzY9P3RA5IQaW by dcz@fosstodon.org
(DIR) More posts by dcz@fosstodon.org
(DIR) Post #AzC4v3aK3WsJ8sm79M by dcz@fosstodon.org
2025-10-14T06:11:52Z
0 likes, 1 repeats
You think Free Software has won? Think again.I explained it at @piwo :https://dorotac.eu/posts/fosswon/Still don't believe me? Right now, @fedora is making more space on your computer for nonfree software they ship:https://www.phoronix.com/news/Fedora-43-Bigger-Boot-FirmwareWhat about all the things around us? And inside us?I name drop @karen who has a story to tell.And it's all our fault. Nerds who grab power over everyone's surroundings with #software that not everyone can even look at.#freesoftware #firmware #fedora
(DIR) Post #AzCBJbABSmXNxVdOng by wolf480pl@mstdn.io
2025-10-14T09:24:15Z
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@dcznit: I'm pretty sure the DRAM initialization firmware runs on the main CPU, or sometimes on an auxiliary CPU withink the SoC, not inside the RAM stick as circled in the picture.But overall great article!
(DIR) Post #AzCBZbzY9P3RA5IQaW by dcz@fosstodon.org
2025-10-14T09:27:06Z
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@wolf480pl You're correct. I did it for the sake of readability: if there was no RAM, there would be one less piece of firmware necessary. And how many circles can I put on the CPU before it gets unreadable?
(DIR) Post #AzCD9ChhkPB770U7MW by dcz@fosstodon.org
2025-10-14T09:30:21Z
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@wolf480pl Before someone says "there's also no computation at all without RAM", modern CPUs carry more memory as cache than my first computer had in total:https://en.wikichip.org/wiki/amd/microarchitectures/zen#Comparison
(DIR) Post #AzCD9E7ySDmlWlmbwm by wolf480pl@mstdn.io
2025-10-14T09:44:46Z
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@dcz yeah, also- state machines exist, are (very limited, not turing-complete) computation without RAM- the difficult thing with RAM is DRAM attached over a DDR-type interface. An SRAM can be much much simpler and usually doesn't require a complex initialization procedure