so logically it may be possible that these prior ATA cards may have firmware versions that are not PROTECTED as much as the 1S2 firmware ended up being; and may contain the code needed to boot MACOS without the need for specific flash chip brand + size
The 1S2 has the best protection potential, the release driver did not utilize.
The story.
Silicon Image created a LOI, so did SIIG.
I never liked the idea of having a large pile of cards in stock as a dead money and running from one show to the other as an exhibitor is not fun either.
SIIG supposed to do that. Like with ProMax, than VST, than Sonnet the best is to focus on the development and have a safe contract.
But our spies overheard SIIG managers boosting to Silicon Image that they will under-report the sales heavily and laughing about it.
Than... they did not laugh anymore. What happened is that I came up with a 16-bit EEPROM chip.
That series of EEPROM-s has a unique feature: it has both 64 bit (if I remember) space which can be modified and an other 64 bit unique serial number.
This allows a classic reverse-RSI copy-protection: it's not about public key + private key, it's about a pair of "public" keys (both numbers can be retrieved) connected through a private algorithm.
The number theory allows a solution where y=f(x) assignment between these keys is possible without revealing the "f" algorithm in the code anywhere.
In other words the SeriTek/1S2 was made the way that each card is unique, having a unique serial number "x" (in the ROM, it can't be modified) and unique second number, y = f(x) which is also in the ROM, provided by a special utility (in my home) which has a secret algorithm.
The "counter-algorithm" in the driver (I consider the code in public hands public) does not have any algorithm which would give you a hint, how the number "y" is generated from the number "x".
This makes the entire thing very difficult to break because with any given card you have to find the proper "y" from the "x" - which has something to do with the RSA. And RSA is not easy to break.
All this was explained to SIIG and demonstrated.
Guess what, they were extremely disappointed and canceled the contract
So we landed up with an overkill for the external card.
The common piracy from small guys was a lesser concern because of the Micrel regulator.
Quicksilver and DA G4 were extremely important and Micrel regulator made the work of copy-cats difficult.
So ultimately there is no other protection in 1SE2 than being just tied to a quite uncommon ROM - we landed up with a pile of these instead of letting SIIG sell them.
Very-very honest company, what can I tell!
Now there will be a free support for 3112 + 3114. 3114 was made for fun, never released to anyone, not even within the company because the performance was not what was expected.
As I recall, 3114 suffers from the same Micrel problem.
So now (2020) everyone has to pay the price of soldering that oversized ugly Micrel thing with it's legs completely twisted.
Because apparently the manufacturers in M'land China do not know this story.
And even if they would know... there is an other story.
A friend of mine is a well-known integrator and owner of an Apple center.
He used to make interesting drive boxes, something like the "Burly Box" of Mac Gurus.
He made these boxes in a retro-Russian design, by intent. They weren't Russian, just looked a bit like.
The power supply came from China.
One day he received a call from if I remember, Sarajevo and an other from Bucharest.
The customers complained, the drive cabinets literally exploded.
He had nothing else, but drive in person over borders, that-time with visa and all fun like that.
The boxes were repaired, the gully was the power supply from China.
After complains the manufacturer was upset: "Why you complaining? We changed the design and now using a component which is 30 Cent cheaper! And we passed the 30 Cent saving to you!"
My friend wasn't happy, the gasoline from his hometown to Sarajevo and back was more than 30 Cents...
The same with Micrel. Aren't you happy, you save probably $1.5 on eBay?
Topic: romfile.7174 (Read 10810 times)