[flashrom] flashrom schedule 2013 (includes my GSoC proposal mostly :)

[Stefan Tauner]

If mentors agree I would rather not set all project details in stone.
My previous project of unlocking the ME had a very distinct goal but
the outcome was something completely different but probably more useful
to the project than if I would have succeeded IMHO :) Also, progress on
single points might be delayed due to missing feedback or reviewing.

Main coding period is from 2013-06-17 till 2013-09-23.
Until then I would like to tag another stable release (0.9.6 was
released in August 2012) and merge the larger chunks of the patch pile.
While this might create intermittent problems without proper review it
will guarantee that there wont be too many conflicts with the code to
come and it will merge stuff that should have been merged way earlier...
If there will be others working on flashrom (panic room, serialice or
even "native" flashrom project(s)), this is even more important.

Here is the list of the most important things I want to merge shortly
after tagging the next stable:

mine:
 - Layout patches
 - Automatic unmapping and rounding of physmaps
 - Internal DMI decoder
others:
 - any makefile-related changes and patches that are waiting on
   makefile changes only if possible (e.g. libusb stuff)
 - rayer_spi/lpt_spi (if they do not make it into the stable)

Please suggest other stuff that you think is ready (I probably forgot
about some)!

My goals for the actual coding season are (in planned chronological
order):
 - integrate Nico's libflashrom patches
 - refine and merge check_trans patch(es). They will be very
   useful/required for the following goals to be implemented (safely).
 - add support for multiple write operations
  * similar to erasers but maybe using distinct enter/exit function
    pointers
 - add support for multiple read operations (like writes), allowing to:
 - add support for 4B-addressing (needed for chips >= 16MB)
  I have received sample chips from Spansion and Macronix (S25FL256,
  S25FL512, MX25L25635), but I need to adapt my programmer to work with
  SOIC16 packages.
 - improve SPI probing. Something long overdue IMHO. There are less
   than a dozen ways to identify SPI flash chips. Nevertheless flashrom
   uses no more than 3 and even those in a rather awkward way.
  * Determine the best way to allow for multiple probing results/matches
    per chip and/or how to separate SPI probing from the rest. Possibly
    split struct flashchip into a generic part and a more specific
    Non-SPI/SPI union.
  * Design a method to rank the received results and match the chip-
  * Implement probing accordingly.
  * Add more/generify probing methods (EDI).
  * Mark chips still not distinguishable (on permissive
    programmers/safely) as evil twins.

Somewhere inbetween I will probably have to create a unified and
distinct type for on-chip addresses, and possibly address ranges too
(and functions to operate on those as if they were sets (union,
intersection, difference)).

If there is still time I could do other infrastructure improvements like
automatic recovery if something fails etc. or reduce my TODO list
(which is essentially the same thing). If there is a lot more time I
would work on the locking interface that and/or improvements regarding
the "Internal programmer improvements for complex systems" project.

If everything works out as planned I would like to release another
stable (or at least release candidate) a few months after the big
changes have been merged, certainly before 2014.
-- 
Kind regards/Mit freundlichen Grüßen, Stefan Tauner