Re: NDAA passed: Internet and Online Streaming Services Emergency Alert Study

[Masataka Ohta <mohta () necom830 hpcl titech ac jp>]

Brandon Martin wrote:

> > but harder to understand for people who lack precise knowledge on
> > what computers and OSes are.
>
> Hi, embedded developer here who spends a considerable amount of time
> writing firmware for "bare metal" systems with "no OS".

I did it with a Z80 computer soldered by myself.

> I have fairly high confidence that what Mike was referring to was
> "whatever base level software ships on the doohickey and provides the
> underlying infrastructure for the user-visible 'apps' that move media
> from the Internet to the monitor".  Mike, please correct me if I'm
> wrong.

What? "base level software"?

You miss that many functions including application ones was and
still is performed by hardware, which is why I wrote to Mike:

>> What makes the most sense is the underlying OS does the work and not
>> each individual app.
> It all depends on not OSes but devices.

For example, these days, many functions of high end IP routers are
performed by hardware.

> In that context, it doesn't really matter what the box is running.
> Could be Linux, could be Windows, could be QNX, could be a "while(1)
> scheduler" and some embedded IP stack.

Regardless of whether a computer is with or without OS, no IP stack,
part of which may be implemented by hardware, can generate emergency
alert by itself, unless some UDP port is specified for it, which is
what I have been saying.

                                                Masataka Ohta