From owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Jul 23 15:30:10 2003 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 60D1437B401 for ; Wed, 23 Jul 2003 15:30:10 -0700 (PDT) Received: from postal1.es.net (postal1.es.net [198.128.3.205]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 9EFC643F3F for ; Wed, 23 Jul 2003 15:30:09 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from oberman@es.net) Received: from ptavv.es.net ([198.128.4.29]) by postal1.es.net (Postal Node 1) with ESMTP (SSL) id MUA74016; Wed, 23 Jul 2003 15:30:08 -0700 Received: from ptavv (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by ptavv.es.net (Tachyon Server) with ESMTP id AD92C5D07; Wed, 23 Jul 2003 15:30:07 -0700 (PDT) To: "Matthew Emmerton" In-Reply-To: Message from "Matthew Emmerton" <009e01c35168$c0738270$1200a8c0@gsicomp.on.ca> Date: Wed, 23 Jul 2003 15:30:07 -0700 From: "Kevin Oberman" Message-Id: <20030723223007.AD92C5D07@ptavv.es.net> cc: FreeBSD-CURRENT Mailing List Subject: Re: We have ath, now what about Broadcom? X-BeenThere: freebsd-current@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: Discussions about the use of FreeBSD-current List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 23 Jul 2003 22:30:10 -0000 > From: "Matthew Emmerton" > Date: Wed, 23 Jul 2003 18:21:23 -0400 > > > The folks at Broadcom have not been willing to release any information > > on their 800.11g chips for fear of violating FCC regs. The required > > NDA would prohibit the release of the source. You can program > > both the transmit power and frequency if you have this. (I make no > > claim as to whether their concerns have any validity.) > > > > For that reason there has been no open-source support for these chips. > > Why would Broadcom be scared? Obviously it's the _driver_ that controls the > power/freq output of the chip, so the responsibility of staying within FCC > regs is that of the driver authors. Of course, the "no warranty" aspects of > open source drivers turns a blind eye to liability, but would things really > come back to Broadcom? The logic is simple. the FCC hold the manufacturer responsible for improper RF from any product. The Broadcom chip makes it easy to generate illegal RF if you know where to poke. They don't care about a driver doing the right thing. They worry that, should the information become public, they can be held in violation as the manufacturer if someone uses that information to move the output to another frequency. Broadcom uses the secrecy of this information to claim compliance and without it, they could not make the chip. Once again, IANAL and I can't speak to the validity of this. -- R. Kevin Oberman, Network Engineer Energy Sciences Network (ESnet) Ernest O. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) E-mail: oberman@es.net Phone: +1 510 486-8634