My friend Brian forwarded this comment about cellphone guts [1] to me (the lateness is due to getting permission to post this email from a third party):
From: Brian Yoder <XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX>
To: Sean Conner <sean@conman.org>
Subject: Fwd: Cellphone guts for the curious … - The Boston Diaries - Captain Napalm
Date: Wed, 23 Jan 2013 17:49:23 -0500
> Sean,
I passed along your blog post to my friend Chip, and here is his response.
Regards, > Brian
Begin forwarded message:
> > From: > XXXXX XXXXX
> To: > Brian Yoder <XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX>
> Subject: > Re: Cellphone guts for the curious … - The Boston Diaries - Captain Napalm
> Date: > January 23, 2013, 1:50:52 AM EST
>
> > > They must have done a very good virtualization work, because FCC (Federal Communications Commission) regulations specify that the computer that runs the transmit recieve be separate from the rest of the phone and with a ROM (Read Only Memory).
>
> It drove cell phone manufactures nuts because of cost, but the FCC did want any one to hack in to phone and change the radio software.
>
Ah … politics trumps technology …