2.6 Exercises

1. List reasons why you think a commercial communications appliance can use a host operating system as the base OS.

2. Determine which RTOS vendors support a STREAMS framework either directly or from third-party vendors.

3. How does a security chip work in conjunction with a network processor? Provide a simple diagram of the solution.

4. Detail the advantages and disadvantages of using a configurable ASIC versus a programmable network processor.

5. A powerful hardware acceleration device is being considered by the hardware team. The problem is that its APIs and documentation are limited. The hardware and system engineers are going ahead with it despite these limitations. Explain how you would approach this situation and the steps you would take to de-risk the software development using this chip.