[Cryptech Tech] Alpha board strategy

[Joachim Strömbergson]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA256

Aloha!

Randy Bush wrote:
> one thing we have not discussed, what user environments do we
> support? let me toss a ball out and folk can hit it.
> 
> can we separate use vs dev vs loading/configuring?

Yes. ;-)

> dev will be driven by the fpga choice, as xilinx seems to be bound
> to windoze if i remember aright.  otherwise, linux.  my guess is mac
> is too much of a pita.  let's presume devs can run vms to get the
> environment we need.

Both Altera and Xilinx provides free tools for Windows and Linux, så the
FPGA dev chain is really not a limiting factor.

If we don't expect to run standard dist Linux (Debian for example) on
the alpha board CPU, but something simpler (mbed, FreeRTOS, ucLinux,
Yocto) we need to be able to do cross compilation. From my experience,
cross compilation using free and open tools is problematic on Windows.
Or rather, it is much easier to do in a UNIX like environment like Linux
or OSX and other *BSD systems.


> can load/config be restricted to a fixed set of applications? if
> they come pre-built, it would be cool if loading could run in the
> first, i.e. use, environment.

Yes, we can have a fixed set of applications and a fixed set of FPGA
configurations. Having one single configuration or a few that is loaded
when the system boots is for example quite possible. Which one is then
selected in /etc/fpga or similar.

If we look at how it works on the Novena, you basically need to be able
to do raw writes to memory. But for the alpha board we could choose to
do it differently and in a way not require root. Or you could have it
done like a service where the application ask to have FPGA configuration
N be loaded and the service configure the FPGA with the specified pre
built image.

The question is really if we will have (multiple) users as such on the
alpha board?

If this makes any sense.

- -- 
Med vänlig hälsning, Yours

Joachim Strömbergson - Alltid i harmonisk svängning.
========================================================================
 Joachim Strömbergson          Secworks AB          joachim at secworks.se
========================================================================
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG/MacGPG2 v2
Comment: GPGTools - http://gpgtools.org
Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org/
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=9Oib
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----