freedom-privacy-security-issues: Improve hardware freedom state description

Signed-off-by: Denis 'GNUtoo' Carikli <GNUtoo@no-log.org>
Signed-off-by: Paul Kocialkowski <contact@paulk.fr>

1 files changed, 7 insertions, 2 deletions

diff --git a/freedom-privacy-security-issues.php b/freedom-privacy-security-issues.php
index c4f2bbc..15f35c3 100644
--- a/freedom-privacy-security-issues.php
+++ b/freedom-privacy-security-issues.php
@@ -41,12 +41,17 @@
 			<h3>The current situation of freedom and privacy/security on mobile devices</h3>
 			<p>
 				A mobile device respecting the users' freedom would have:<ul><li>Free hardware</li><li>Free firmwares</li><li>Free modem system</li><li>Free bootrom and bootloader</li><li>Free system and applications</li></ul>Regarding <a href="#free-hardware">free hardware</a>, it barely exists as of today.
-				Modifying hardware is nearly impossible: new versions of the hardware have to be produced, and those are expensive.
+				The ways of modifying existing hardware are very limited.
+				Because of that, new versions of the hardware have to be produced to carry the modifications, and this is expensive.
 				While producing printed circuit boards (PCBs) costs a lot of money, producing integrated circuits is out of reach.
-				A few devices come with schematics for the PCB, but that's usually as far as it gets.
+				A few devices come with schematics, or full design files for the PCB, but that's usually as far as it gets.
 				Hence, totally-free hardware doesn't exist yet.
 			</p>
 			<p>
+				Logic configuration used in programmable logic devices such as FPGAs exists with free licenses.
+				However, these logic devices are not practical enough to replace dedicated integrated circuits (ASICs) in smartphones and most of them require proprietary toolchains.
+			</p>
+			<p>
 				Firmwares running inside integrated circuits are most of the time proprietary.
 				While free firmwares are hard to write, some exist for very specific hardware (e.g. <a href="//www.arduino.cc/">Arduino</a>, <a href="//dangerousprototypes.com/docs/Bus_Pirate">Bus Pirate</a>) and sometimes,  manufacturers can liberate firmwares running in their integrated circuits (e.g. <a href="//github.com/qca/open-ath9k-htc-firmware">ath9k_htc</a>).
 				However, it is not always possible to even replace those firmwares: some are loaded to the integrated circuit by the main CPU but some others are pre-installed in the circuit (in that case, they almost seem to behave like hardware) and cannot be updated to a free replacement.