it's < and >.
Welcome to the 90s.

I like how you say something dumb, get called out for it, and then follow up with random statements completely unrelated to your original point... But i truly lost it at

(not only because it's complete nonsense)
Please quit posting on /. forever. Thanks.

I never said you said that, but you mentioned it only in the context of programming.
Besides, you ignore the entire rest of the response.. Pot, meet kettle.

Was there a viable standard for this at that time?

That sounds like a chicken-egg problem. If the drive can access the platters without firmware, what's the point of the firmware then? Or if the 'small bootloader' can actually access the platters, then what does it need to read the 'real thing' from the platters for?

Dear Mr. Low-ID, here's your Interwebs 101: Don't feed the trolls. That is, unless you're in for quality counter trolling.

Right, manufacturers typically spend a shitload of $ to engineer their own debug interface and the respective hardware for it when there's an established and well-designed open standard around. </s>

Ehm, first of all, JTAG isn't only used for downloading firmware to your device, it's also a debugging interface and *very* widespread.
Second, you don't typically "disable" the JTAG interface on a released device -- what you do is set some "lock bits" or equivalent in the MCU, so the firmware cannot be read. No need to disable JTAG for that.

But sure, go on demonstrating how little you know about the matter... AC after all.

Really? Have they finally ported it to any platform other than the JVM?

It’s not a proof of concept, or a scale model. It’s the real deal. "It’s not a test track," CEO Dirk Ahlborn says [...]

Instead, this first prototype will test and tweak practical elements like station setup, boarding procedures, and pod design. [...] It’s also a way to prove that yes, this thing can be built.

Way to contradict yourself... Twice. Emphasis mine.

It compiled

Nifty

Yeah. Or a small business.

how about chess?

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