4 ms·
You're in for a rude awaking once you realize that there are various forms of micro-controllers spread all throughout your system and has been that way since th
by adestefan 14y ago
You're in for a rude awaking once you realize that there are various forms of micro-controllers spread all throughout your system and has been that way since the original IBM PC.
- revelation 14y agoRead on, I realize as much. However, many of these microcontrollers work(ed?) on a completely burned in program and did not have significant computation power, or access to any meaningful interfaces. Times have changed. Today we have full-sized ARMs loaded with binary blobs that independently serve the baseband, i.e. RF communication, of your smartphone. They talk to the application processor on a very very high level, to the point where this baseband chip has to support IPv6 natively for you to be able to use it. They are completely closed source, there is no open source alternative, and they already implement features like GPS geolocation that you do not control but directly impact your privacy. Another example would be the "silent SMS" that law enforcement uses to ping your device and get your approximate position from the tower. That chip will never inform the application processor of this, even though I'm told it has the knowledge.
- adestefan 14y agoJust an FYI, but all GSM control information is sent via SMS. You have thousands of them coming from your phone everyday. SMS as instant messaging is a big pot of gold for carriers since the infrastructure has to be in place for the network to even work.