Developer Warns Of "Uncorrectable Freedom & Security Issues" For x86

[karolherbst]

How do you expect to sell a GPU for a not-yet-ready workstation if nobody produces it anymore?

I am pretty sure, that nouveau runs on POWER systems with normal "PC" versions of nvidias. I might be wrong though.

[duby229]

I am pretty sure, that nouveau runs on POWER systems with normal "PC" versions of nvidias. I might be wrong though.

The way I read it was he was talking about the firmware blob. Older generation cards the blob was reverse engineered but not on newer generation cards.l

[karolherbst]

The way I read it was he was talking about the firmware blob. Older generation cards the blob was reverse engineered but not on newer generation cards.l

yeah, totally right. But PCIe is usually backwards compatible, so the problem shouldn't be that big currently.

[duby229]

yeah, totally right. But PCIe is usually backwards compatible, so the problem shouldn't be that big currently.

Cool, I do agree for most workstation tasks those cards that do have the firmware reverse engineered are more than adequate.

But there are folks out there that are interested in fully open systems so I wonder if the newer generation cards can have their firmware reverse engineered?

[karolherbst]

Cool, I do agree for most workstation tasks those cards that do have the firmware reverse engineered are more than adequate.

But there are folks out there that are interested in fully open systems so I wonder if the newer generation cards can have their firmware reverse engineered?

well somebody can always find out what the specific things in the vbios mean, but before they can be uploaded to the gpu they have to be signed by a private key from nvidia. Soooo most likely not. But on gpus before that, those firmware files are compiled by nouveau except for the video acceleration bits, because nobody really looked into that yet. But this is pretty solid if everything up to 1gen maxwell can be run on free software.

On a side note: the left video bios is more like a description of the GPU, so I don't see it as software. It is a binary blob, yes, but no binary and never executed by anything, only parsed to get the right information.

[SystemCrasher]

Well, thanks for being Captain UnObvious, I've got very similar ideas about backdoored Intel crap and actually I'm doubt my next laptop or something like this is going to be x86. I'm fed up with treacherous Intel crap and AMD seems to head similar "security" BS direction fast.

When some corporate wrench says something about "security", "rights" and "protection" you can be pretty sure: they are about to screw you up, not something else. It would not yeld users any security of convenience, quite opposite - it introduces new points of failure, powerful ways to conceal malicious software and backdoors which are very hard to thwart in efficient ways. Hey, Intel, there is new marketing buzzword for you. How about being "Defective By Design"? Well deserved badge, isn't it?

[drSeehas]

... doubt my next laptop or something like this is going to be x86. I'm fed up with treacherous Intel crap and AMD seems to head similar "security" BS direction fast. ...

You can still buy Kabini (without PSP) based laptops.

[pixo]

IIRC the PSP in AMD CPUs is developed by ARM. ARM TrusZone its called.
So if you buy ARM SoCs based notebook you need to also check if its integrated or not.
If only games run on POWER, there would be ATX mobo and the price was <= 1000 euro I would get one.

[SpyroRyder]

This might be a good time to mention a fully open source processor, implementing the free open instruction set RISC-V:

https://www.ethz.ch/en/news-and-events/eth-news/news/2016/03/open-source-microprocessor.html

http://www.pulp-platform.org/

http://riscv.org/

And open source GPU:

http://miaowgpu.org/

Now having an BIOS/UEFI alternative and platform specification would allow to start building completely open source hardware systems.

Being a standard, and a pretty reasonable one aside from secure boot, we don't so much need an alternative to UEFI as we need an open implementation. Coreboot has one (not sure if libreboot also uses that module) but there are limited boards that support coreboot

[darkbasic]

I am pretty sure, that nouveau runs on POWER systems with normal "PC" versions of nvidias. I might be wrong though.

I meant that Nvidia will not be selling that old GPUs you were talking about anymore when Talos will reach market.