1921
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Hardware & Electronics
The most popular blog posts about hardware & electronics on Hacker News. 3,045 posts.
1922
Looking inside a vintage Soviet TTL logic integrated circuit
This blog post examines a 1980s chip used in a Soyuz space clock. The microscope photo below shows the tiny silicon die inside the package, ...
1923
ESP32: leaving love notes and entering demoscene territory (2022)
I’ve been tinkering with arduino-like platforms recently (more on the midi synth soon) and got the idea to make a small message board to leave notes to my girlfriend. This is how I ended up with a simulator, an integration with a demoscene tracker, custom tools to make palette cycling effects, having to learn CAD to…
1924
The Transistor, Part 3: Endless Reinvention
For over a hundred years the analog dog wagged the digital tail. The effort to extend the reach of our senses – sight, hearing, even (after a manner of speaking) touch, drove engineers and sc…
1925
Atari Means Business with the Mega ST
The first "pro" ST
1926
1927
The “Ultimate” ThinkPad (2020)
A comprehensive guide to upgrading the Lenovo Thinkpad X230 with a better keyboard, a better screen and a custom coreboot BIOS.
1928
Let's Talk About Capacitor Failure
I spend a good deal of time these days on various telnet BBS that are (naturally) focused on vintage computing. As such, much of the discussion being had in the message bases is in the form of help / advice … Continue reading →
1929
Replace Philips Hue Automation with Home Assistant's
This is the 3rd post in the My journey with Home Assistant focus series. I’m the happy owner of a couple of Philips Hue connected lights for a some years. Some of them are colored, some of them regular. In addition, I bought a sensor to go along with the light I installed in my toilets: it turns on automatically when…
1930
Understanding the BeagleBone’s built in microcontrollers (2016)
The BeagleBone Black is an inexpensive, credit-card sized computer that has two built-in microcontrollers called PRUs. While the PRUs provi...
1931
I made a small LED panel
I bought a really small 8x8 LED panel a while ago because I have a problem. I just can’t resist a nice WS2812 LED panel, much like I can’t resist an e-ink display. These days I manage to stay sober, but once in a while I’ll see a nice cheap LED panel and fall off the wagon. It has now been thirteen minutes that I have…
1932
Homemade Speakers
I had the awesome opportunity of taking the EE423 Speaker Design class offered at USC while I was going to school there. The class is taught by engineers from JBL, with some help from people like Tom Holman (the TH in THX guy!), who happens to be a researcher at USC. I learned a lot about speaker design, and ended up…
1933
Build Your Own Minisforum N5 Inspired Mini NAS
Print your own 5-bay N5 Mini NAS! Inspired by the Minisforum N5, this 175mm x 175mm design fits most small beds—use any mini PC you prefer.
1934
The core memory inside a Saturn V rocket's computer
The Launch Vehicle Digital Computer (LVDC) had a key role in the Apollo Moon mission, guiding and controlling the Saturn V rocket. Like most...
1935
I ran Photoshop on a £0.60 computer chip
I've always had a fascination with simpler and low power computing. This lead me to run Photoshop on a 60 pence computer chip and it amazes me that this is possible.
1936
1937
An Interview with Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger
An interview with Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger about IDM 2.0, the acquisition of Tower Semiconductor, and the choices Intel did not make.
1938
MicroPython on the BBC micro:bit
A summary of the work done so far on getting MicroPython to work on the BBC micro:bit device for children.
1939
CERN at Home: Building a Particle Detector
What do you do when you’re stuck at home with a 16-year-old son during a pandemic lockdown? Well, the first answer is that you build a gaming PC. That was a good project with a lot of incentives to complete, but that also meant it was soon over. So, what next? I spotted a post about an outreach project from CERN to…
1940
Predicting the tide with an analog computer made from Lego
Didn't you ever wish your<br>computer understood you?
1941
Fundamental flaws of SIMD ISAs (2021)
According to Flynn’s taxonomy SIMD refers to a computer architecture that can process multiple data streams with a single instruction (i.e. “Single Instruction stream, Multiple Data streams”). There are different taxonomies, and within those several different sub-categories and architectures that classify as “SIMD”.
1942
Turning the Raspberry Pi 4 into a Mini Server
Since the Raspberry Pi 4 came out last year, we now have an excellent candidate to base the mini server on. The faster processor and option for up to 8GB of RAM opens up more possibilities for what you can do with it, including now being more than capable as a general Linux desktop system, so with all that in mind…
1943
Mining Ethereum on M1 Mac GPU
I’ve had my M1 MacBook Air for a bit of time now, and I also recently started mining Ethereum. I can’t help asking myself: What’s Ethereum mining performance like on a M1 Mac?
1944
Dell's version of the DGX Spark fixes pain points
Dell sent me two of their GB10 mini workstations to test: In this blog post, I'll cover the base system, just one of the two nodes. Cluster testing is ongoing, and I'll cover things like AI model training and networking more in depth next year, likely with comparisons to the Framework Desktop cluster and Mac Studio…
1945
3D Printer Shootout – $600 Printrbot vs. $20,000 UPrint SE Plus
First, let's level set with a disclaimer. I am a smart enough person but a ...
1946
1947
Fearless concurrency in your microcontroller
A blog about Rust and embedded stuff
1948
Pentium on a 386 Motherboard
I was wondering what would be the ultimate upgrade for my 386 motherboard. It has a soldered-in 386 CPU, an unpopulated 386 PGA socket, and a socket for either a 387 FPU or a 486 PGA. It might even be compatible with a Weitek processor, though I’m not entirely certain. There’s also a possibility that it has a…
1949
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...
1950
Wifi: “beamforming” only begins to describe it
[Note to the impatient: to try out my beamforming simulation, which produced the above image, visit my beamlab test page - ideally in a brow...