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TheCoop
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Joined: 15 Jun 2002
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 Posted: Thu Dec 21, 2006 9:35 pm Post subject: Generalised wireless driver? |
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Is there any reason why there are so many random wireless drivers not in the kernel? Is it the non-opensourced firmware needed? Does a generalised wireless network interface exist, so the different drivers and completely seperate reverse-engineering efforts aren't needed?
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Naib
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 6051
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| Posted: Thu Dec 21, 2006 9:54 pm Post subject: |
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THink of it like this...
The Kernel speaks English, one wireless card speaks French, another speaks German, another speaks...
for the kernel to speak to the hardware they need a translator. In comes the driver + firmware (firmware more of a "manu fooked up, need a way to fix their probs)
in an ideal world majority of stuff would be done in hardware and a very simple driver would be needed. However, companies are out to make money and they know the best way to make money is to licence their stuff (so they can just sit back and let the money roll in and do nothing)
this results in lots-o-different chips (good for competition) but lots-o-different (closed) ways to talk to these chips
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rokstar83
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Joined: 09 Apr 2005
Posts: 423
Location: MD
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| Posted: Fri Dec 22, 2006 12:08 am Post subject: Re: Generalised wireless driver? |
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| TheCoop wrote: | | Is there any reason why there are so many random wireless drivers not in the kernel? Is it the non-opensourced firmware needed? Does a generalised wireless network interface exist, so the different drivers and completely seperate reverse-engineering efforts aren't needed? |
By comparison to other types of hardware wireless is fairly young and as a result best practises on how to acomplish the desired effect still vary enough for companies to say "ours is 50 times better." plus the standards for wireless seem to be in constant flux and are out pacing the hardware. Implementation as a result is a large r&d project and they need to recoup that some how. |
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aidanjt
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Joined: 20 Feb 2005
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Location: Rep. of Ireland
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| Posted: Fri Dec 22, 2006 12:14 am Post subject: Re: Generalised wireless driver? |
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| rokstar83 wrote: | | Implementation as a result is a large r&d project and they need to recoup that some how. |
As large as say.. a major CPU architecture overhaul? :/ |
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