On Dec 19, 2005, at 5:02 PM, matthew green wrote:

>
>    1. It seems to me that it would be better to read such a  
> firmware file one
>    time and free it after use than to waste a chunk of memory (even  
> if paged
>    out) for ever.
>    u
>
> some drivers need to reload the firmware "semi-often".  ie, when
> my iwi(4) craps out, reloading the firmware fixes it usually.  so
> getting rid of it isn't always isn't a good idea.

Yes, drivers should control the memory allocated for the firmware  
image so that they can make their own decisions about when it should  
stay or go.

-- thorpej