1
Observing my cellphone switch towers
One of my favorite books is 2013 "High Performance Browser Networking" by Ilya Grigorik. Besides a wealth of actionable advice, the book is illustrated with captivating real life stories.
Fabien Sanglard
21/08/2026: My agent.md to improve LLM-assisted code quality 17/08/2026: Quake shareware, a CD just a little too full 13/07/2026: Jurassic Park computers in excruciating detail 11/07/2026: A dock that finally wakes up reliably! 10/07/2026: Don't you meant extinct? 28/06/2026: My favorite keyboards 01/06/2026: The art…
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Visit fabiensanglard.net → RSS feedOn Hacker News Apr 2009 – Aug 2026
Software Engineering 54Games & Graphics 49Hardware & Electronics 19History & Retro Computing 12Systems & Performance 9Tools & Productivity 7
2
Inside the Super Nintendo cartridges
One of the remarkable characteristics of the Super Nintendo was the ability for game cartridges (cart) to pack more than instructions and assets into ROM chips. If we open and look at the PCBs, we can find inside things like the CIC copy protection chip, SRAM, and even "enhancement processors".
3
USB Cheat Sheet (2022)
I spend time investigating a non-existing bug today because I misunderstood a USB term. So I made myself a cheat sheet. Maybe it will save time to someone.
4
The 3dfx Voodoo1
This article is the second entry in a series about the "3D cards of the late 90s running Quake". The first entry [1] took a look at the end of 1996 with the Rendition Vérité 1000 and its dedicated port called vQuake. Rendition had managed to beat everybody to Quake-market. For a brief period of time they had the one…
5
Discret 11, the French TV encryption of the 80s
I spent my childhood in France, playing a lot of soccer and watching way too much TV. In the 80s, there were three channels available. Two of them, Antenne 2 and FR3, were state funded and boring while TF1 was privatized and offered plenty of Japanese cartoons. My generation grew up with Captain Tsubasa, Saint Seiya…
6
The beautiful Silent ThunderBolt-3 PC
When I placed the last screw on the DB4 chassis of the Beautiful Silent PC [1] , I thought I would not have to open it up again for years. Perhaps, I hypothesized, it would be a decade before an upgrade. The beautiful silent PC. The imperative of working from home proved me wrong when the seemingly easy problem of…
7
Understanding the design of the the Super Nintendo video system
Last time, I explored the inside of the Super Nintendo cartridges . Today I am going through its video system.
8
The Confusing World of USB
For decades, my perception of USB was that of a technology both simple and reliable. You plug it and it works. The two first iterations [1] [2] freed PCs from a badly fragmented connector world made of RJ-45 (Ethernet), DA-15 (Joystick), DE-9 (Serial), DIN (PS/2), SCSI, and DB-25 (Parallel). When USB-3.0 came out…
9
Apple's Pro Display XDR takes Thunderbolt 3 to its limit
I like Thunderbolt a lot. Mostly because USB's land of optional features is a mess which makes choosing a cable/peripheral difficult. With thunderbolt you have a single number to get right. And then you are supposed to be golden. However the idyll with Intel's interface took a hit when I tried to make sense of Apple's…
10
Mo RAM, Mo Problems (2025)
As a retro-computer enthusiast, it seems that parts are either insanely expensive or dirt cheap. If the first case has obvious problems, the second can also lead to issues.
11
Ode to the M1
It is not often I am blown away by a piece of hardware. My Hall of Fame features the 1991 Super Nintendo, the 1995 3dfx1, and the 2010 Intel's Serie 520 SSD [1] . This past month my 2021 MacBook Pro M1 [2] joined the club.
12
Don't you mean extinct?
In 1993, Jurassic Park came out and revolutionized the use of CGI in films [1] . To the public the experience was magic. But for some of the people in the movie industry, it was a rude awakening.
13
The Hearts of the Super Nintendo
When I start studying a vintage system, the first thing I like to do is understand how its components work together at the hardware level [1] .
14
Building my childhood dream PC
In 1993, I was 14 and already passionate about computers [1] . That year my mother managed to buy a PC for the household. That was quite an effort for a single mother. My brother Aurelien and I spent every waking hour on this machine, staying up all night on weekends.
15
An History of Nvidia Stream Multiprocessor
I spent last week-end getting accustomed to CUDA and SIMT programming. It was a prolific time ending up with a Business Card Raytracer running close to 700x faster [1] , from 101s to 150ms. This pleasant experience was a good pretext to spend more time on the topic and learn about the evolution of Nvidia architecture…
16
How the SNES Graphics System Works
Last week's article discussed how the Super Nintendo's Video system feeds the TV's CRT. Today I'll summarize what I understand of the hardware generating these graphics.
17
My favorite keyboards
When I started using computers, we had a Sinclair ZX Spectrum at home and a nano-reseau of Thomson MO5 s at elementary school. I distinctly remember how unpleasant it was to type with them. These must have been the worst keyboards I ever used [1] . Ever since, I have paid close attention to the keyboards I use. Here…
18
The Beautiful Diablo 2 Resurrected Machine
The last game I played extensively was "Diablo 2" during the year 2000 when Internet finally became affordable in France. I loved that it was a difficult game to master, I loved the mandatory grinding which made accomplishments meaningful. I loved to trade and the economy players invented.
19
Capcom CPS-1 Graphic system study
As I keep on exploring the internals of the machine that animated so many hours of my childhood, I came to study its GFX system.