@mjg59 >it's software
The circuits are circuits that are hardware, even though they happen to encode microprocessor instructions.

>(including performing cryptographic validation of other blobs)
If you don't include any proprietary software on core 2 duo's, such cryptographic validation is not done.

>would you argue that a copy of Linux in ROM creates no GPL obligations?
There would be no obligation under the GPLv2 to provide installation information, but the source code would need to be provided.