live-cd distro that writes to cd

[Peter L. Peres]

On Wed, 9 Mar 2005, William Park wrote:

> USB key will certainly change few things:
>
>    - embedded market -- USB will completely take over embedded market,
>      because all you need is a board with USB port, and you can boot it
>      just like your regular computer.  (This is what I'm doing with my
>      thin-client thing).

With this I do not agree. Unless someone will wake up and implement a 
simple serial protocol using the existing USB pinout, the host will have 
to implement a USB master. That is a problem for low cost 
microcontrollers (it might require more transistors on the micro die to 
implement it, than the micro's functional core itself).

For example, some FPGAs will boot from a EEPROM chip by supplying clock 
and a read command. The EEPROM will send the bits it has stored and 
'implement' the desired function in the FPGA. This works because the 
readout protocol from the EEPROM is extremely simple (auto-incrementing 
address etc). To me a viable alternative in the micro world, the USB key 
devices should implement something similar imho.

>    - commercial application -- you can load USB key with your favourite
>      app (eg. MS-Word, CorelDraw, etc), and use it wherever you are.
>      That is, you buy the software once for the USB key, instead of
>      buying for every machines you use.  In fact, I'm hearing rumours
>      that people are thinking about selling applications pre-installed
>      on USB key.  (Of course, I'm doing that already).

Yes but what about copyright and protection ?

>    - secured data transfer -- no need for encryption.  Possible
>      application might be hospitals, where in-house local transfer is
>      needed but without wireless or cable.

That is a good application.

Peter
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