Author: Keith Evans
Date: 13:28:48 06/29/03
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On June 29, 2003 at 14:44:45, Jeremiah Penery wrote: >On June 29, 2003 at 13:11:21, Slater Wold wrote: > >>On June 29, 2003 at 13:06:20, Slater Wold wrote: >> >>>On June 29, 2003 at 10:26:35, Peter Stayne wrote: >>> >>>>Does Brutus have a homepage with a running log of updates or something? I would >>>>imagine updates to Brutus' engine would be expensive so it'd be interesting to >>>>see how it's change management differs from a software engine. >>> >>>No. It's 'top secret'. >> >>And I don't know what you mean by 'expensive', but I assure you they are not. > >A lot more expensive to fabricate a new chip than to recompile a new version of >software. Brutus is built using a Xilinx FPGA - it is not a custom chip. Xilinx FPGAs use distributed SRAM to determine how the chip is configured. To update a Xilinx chip you merely load a new bitstream. Most FPGA-based PCI boards provide the means to upload a new configuration at any time. You can even buy standalone boards which configure themselves from CompactFlash. So you should be able to download new versions of the Brutus FPGA from the Internet. Last time I checked Brutus was using a card from http://www.alpha-data.com/, but that may have changed. Keith
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