title: Forward compatible hardware detection
body: <p>Being a softie, I'm currently fighting some hardware techies on a hardware detection mechanism.</p>
  
  <p>I feel like it should be possible to build a detection/discovery mechanism that is 'future proof', in a way that the detection software, built today, will be able to recognize a limited set of properties of all hardware versions developed in the future.</p>
  
  <p>The argument against: the current (dsp) chip may become obsolete in the near future; hence, we cannot guarantee that future boards will be compatible with the current discovery protocol.</p>
  
  <p>How is this done for e.g. USB, PnP, and are there other examples?</p>