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Implementing FizzBuzz on an FPGA
I recently started FPGA programming and figured it would be fun to use an FPGA to implement the FizzBuzz algorithm. An FPGA ( Field-Progra...
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2282
The KK Computer: A Radical 6502 Redesign
The main feature is fast access to a flat, 24-bit address space. Although there are many ways to retrofit a 'C02 with expanded memory, AFAIK none can touch this implementation for speed. Given any random address in the 16 megabyte space, KK can fetch that byte in 6-8 cyles. It's fast because:
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The Rubik's Contraption
A collaboration with Jared . Before any build log, here's a video: That was a Rubik's cube being solved in 0.38 seconds. The t...
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Nixie-clock using neon lamps as logic (2017)
The above shows my home-built digital clock. It uses Nixie-tubes for readout. In contrast to most other nixie-clocks being built these days, my clock does not use any transistor or IC for driving the tubes. Instead, the driving logic is built from neon lamps , together with resistors, capacitors and silicon diodes.
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Programming ARM μC in Rust at four different levels of abstraction
This content was originally meant to be presented as part of my workshop on Rust and microcontrollers at the NITC FOSSMeet 2018 . As I was not able to cover it satisfactorily during the workshop, I thought of writing it down!
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I.MX7 M4 Atomic Cache Bug
Hardware Bugs can be frustrating, as they are likely the last place you would expect a bug. Unfortunately, they can and do happen. Most likely every CPU has a list of erratas. This post outlines th…
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Magic Leap One Video – Diffractive Waveguides Confirmed
At Recode’s Code Media conference on Feb. 13, 2018 (a few hours ago as I write this), they live streamed an interview with Ronny Abovitz, CEO of Magic Leap and NBA commissioner Adam Silver. The int…
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E-Stop and Fuel, software that keeps you awake at night
Computer code that I’m writing usually doens’t keep me up at night. After all, it’s only bits & bites and if something doesn’t work properly you can always fix it, that’s the beauty of software.
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Repairing the card reader for a 1960s mainframe: cams, relays and a clutch
I recently helped repair the card reader for the Computer History Museum's vintage IBM 1401 mainframe. In the process, I learned a lot abou...
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No Cutting Corners on the iPhone X
When the iPhone X launched, a lot of designers were put off about the screen shape. Those complaints have mostly died down, but I haven’t…
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Easy laser-cut electronics cases for maker boards (2017)
Downloadable acrylic case designs for the Raspberry Pi Zero+Stackable USB Hub, Orange Pi Lite & Marvell ESPRESSObin.
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If you watch closely enough, everything is a speaker
Using high speed cameras, it’s possible to record the vibrations of everyday objects caused by nearby sounds and reverse engineer the sounds…essentially turning
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NASA’s IMAGE satellite, lost since 2005, is alive
Over the past week the station has been dedicated to an S-band scan looking for new targets and refreshing the frequency list, triggered by the recent launch of the mysterious ZUMA mission. This t…
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Building a Lightroom PC
Why I switched to Windows 10 from macOS and built a water-cooled and overclocked 5.2GHz 6-core PC for photo editing with Adobe Lightroom Classic CC.
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The Transistor, Part 1: Groping in the Dark
The road to a solid-state switch was a long and complex one. It began with the discovery that certain materials behaved oddly with respect to electricity – differently than any existing theor…
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OpenWrt in a WiFi card reader (2017)
The Zsun Wifi card reader is cheap tiny USB to MicroSD card reader with an integrated wifi chip running Linux, In a nutshell, it is a WiFi access point with more flash (16MB) and RAM (64 MB) than most OpenWrt supported routers. Polish hardware hacker q3k from Warsaw Hackerspace, is a recent and…
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Embedded in Rust: Brave new I/O
A blog about Rust and embedded stuff
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The MacBook Air: A Decade’s Worth of Legacy
A decade ago, we entered the current era of notebook design when Steve Jobs pulled the future out of an envelope.
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How do plutonium-powered pacemakers work?
From the highly eclectic blog of Mark Dominus
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Xerox Alto's 3 Mb/s Ethernet: Building a Gateway with a BeagleBone
The Alto was a revolutionary computer designed at Xerox PARC in 1973. It introduced the GUI, high-resolution bitmapped displays, the optic...
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An array of eight SN76489 sound chips playable via USB MIDI
The SN76489 is the same sound chip as found in the SEGA Master System. This is an array of eight SN76489 sound chips playable via USB...
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Finding a CPU Design Bug in the Xbox 360
The recent reveal of Meltdown and Spectre reminded me of the time I found a related design bug in the Xbox 360 CPU – a newly added instruction whose mere existence was dangerous. Back in 2005 I was…
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Putting Apple’s iMac Pro Through the Paces
At the end of December, Apple made good on the release of the new iMac Pro and started selling and shipping the new workstations. While this could be characterized as a stop-gap effort until the ne…
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An 8-tube module from a 1954 IBM 705 mainframe: it's a key debouncer
IBM's vacuum tube computers of the 1950s were built from pluggable modules, each holding eight tubes and the associated components. I recent...