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RISC-V Stumbling Blocks
Recently, I’ve started to explore RISC-V. I experienced the journey as pretty refreshing, particularly because I’ve been working on x86 low-level software almost exclusively for about 10 years.
Top posts
Every blog post that took off on Hacker News, ranked by the votes of its best submission. 4,807 posts.
Hardware & Electronics
Any year
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The likely cheapest home-made Michelson interferometer
Lately, I’ve been really into 3D printing along with asking myself what we can do with this technology now that it’s become, well, a technology. (At least, in the “this is a thing that can now be used, is robust, and is generally accessible to many people” sense of technology.) The first thing to print on a 3D printer…
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The i.MX8 cannot be deblobbed
Devices based on the i.MX8 or i.MX8M (such as the Librem phone or MNT Reform) have received popular coverage recently. The number of firmware blobs involved in the bringup of these devices is often a point of discussion. At times, people have considered whether some of these blobs could be replaced with libre…
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How many branches can your CPU predict?
Modern processors have the ability to execute many instructions per cycle, on a single core. To be able to execute many instructions per cycle in practice, processors predict branches. I have made the point over the years that modern CPUs have an incredible ability to predict branches. It makes benchmarking difficult…
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My brand new digitizing workflow using a 25 year old film scanner
Photography is arguably my oldest hobby. I’ve loved taking photos for as long as I can remember. I reflected on my first encounter with digital photography in 2003 in a recent post, but I’m old enough…
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C-Motive's electrostatic motors use printed circuit boards instead of magnets
Simple, efficient torque C-Motive’s motors are engineered to provide silent, maintenance-free, and high-efficiency torque for stationary industrial applicat ...
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Computers Built to Last
I've recently thought a lot about the essay The computer built to last 50 years by Ploum. It's a delightful piece about the author's ideal, long-lasting computational platform - precisely the thing I enjoy reading. It's got a nice blend of slow tech and libre computing advocacy mixed with personal ponderings centered…
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Fitting 44% More Data on a C64/1541 Floppy Disk
The physical data format on a Commodore 1541 5¼-inch floppy disk as used by the C64 is completely defined in software. The drive’s operating system fits 170 KB on a disk. This article explores different strategies, each with its pros and cons, to fit up to 246 KB.
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Meshtastic 64 – A meshtastic radio for the Commodore 64
For this project I designed and built a meshtastic radio that plugs directly into the Commodore 64. My goal was to release this at the VCF M...
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Making Ferrite Core Inductors at Home
I have recently been working on tuning circuits, which typically consist of an inductor and a capacitor (i.e. an LC circuit). For those not familiar with inductors, they are passive components that store energy in a magnetic field. They oppose changes in current, meaning that they pass direct current (DC) and block…
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Weird CPU architectures, the MOV only CPU (2020)
I like CPU architectures, especially weird, interesting and unusual ones. For example, the Intel iAPX 432 is still something I would love to play around with. Recently, I realized that a working CPU can be made with just a simple Move instruction. For this to work, everything needs to be memory mapped. The ALU…
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Rooting, firmware analysis and persistent credentials of TP-Link TL-841N
round 2: rooting & analysing firmware of the TP-Link TL-WR841N
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Passive Microwave Repeaters
One of the most significant single advancements in telecommunications technology was the development of microwave radio. Essentially an evolution of radar, the middle of the Second World War saw the first practical microwave telephone system. By the time Japan surrendered, AT&T had largely abandoned their plan to…
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MK1 Flywheel Unlocks the Full Potential of AMD Instinct for LLM Inference
AMD acquires MK1, welcoming their world-class team and marking another key milestone in our strategy to advance AI performance and efficiency.
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Reverse engineering circuitry in a Spacelab computer from 1980
Spacelab was a reusable laboratory that could be carried in the cargo bay of the Space Shuttle, providing lab space for astronauts and exper...
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Reprogramming a Sennheiser Microphone
I'm somehow interested in audio production. But not it more my pet hobby, nothing that would generate decent income. This means I usually do...
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I Quit My Job To Teach People About Hardware
This topic was discussed in greater detail in Episode 184 of to The Amp Hour. This article is more about the personal feelings that have accompanied this (ongo
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'Reptar', a new CPU vulnerability
A new CPU vulnerability, ‘Reptar,’ found by Google researchers, has been patched by Google and Intel. Here’s what you need to know.
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Building a $400 at-home DIY spin bike for Peloton and Apple Fitness+
Looking to build a DIY bike for spin classes at home? I have you covered with my build and review of the Sunny bike and accessories for under $400
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The Texas Instruments TMX 1795: the first, forgotten microprocessor
The first 8-bit microprocessor, the TMX 1795 had the same architecture as the 8008 but was built months before the 8008. Never sold commerci...
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A VR Cycling Experience for $40
I’ve made an Arduino thing that can wirelessly talk to a mobile device over BLE and can now meter the revolutions of a wheel with an optical tachometer. I’m using these two hardware fea…
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AMD Receives Approval for Acquisition of Xilinx
View the press release archives from AMD.