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The most popular blog posts about hardware & electronics on Hacker News. 294 posts.
I'm almost ashamed to admit it, but just 1 year ago when I started working on C64 OS, I didn't have the first clue how the C64 Keyboard worked. I knew there was a thing called the keyboard buffer, but I had cloudy thoughts of it being inside the keyboard itself. When I had to actually write the keyboard scanning…
I found this keyboard on eBay recently, although it wasn’t quite the one I was looking for I still think it is interesting. Let me show you why. This is the keyboard, and you would be forgiven for…
Detailed explanation on how RISC-V boot process works and what role SBI has in the RISC-V software stack. Concrete example with OpenSBI.
Using assembly language test loops to understand the differences between M1 Pro and M3 Pro CPU cores casts new light on their differences.
Raspberry Pi just announced their new Camera Module 3, which comes in four variations (standard and wide angle, normal and NoIR for infrared use), and costs $25 for the standard versions, and $35 for wide angle. That's a step up from the older Camera Module 2, which cost $25 and only came in a 'standard' focal length…
Introduction This part will primarily cover the hardware and related human physical and visual issues with the Apple Vision Pro (AVP). In Part 3, I intend to discuss my issues with the applications…
In my video about the Raspberry Pi 5, I mentioned the new external PCIe port makes it possible to boot the standard Pi 5 model B directly off NVMe storage—an option which is much faster and more reliable than standard microSD storage (even with industrial-rated cards!). Enabling NVMe boot is pretty easy, you add a…
Why do the 8-bit designs of the 1970s still generate so much interest?
Background Back in April, the hardware news site cnx-software featured a very nice new small Linux board called Breadbee , that was design...
My children are hopelessly addicted to their gaming devices. This is a problem, but not one that I can directly solve because the school mandates that they have both an Android smartphone and a Windows laptop. Rather than to meet the problem head on I figured the better way to address it is to replace consumption with…
(Source: Infoworld, 25th May 1992, p56) We need to start at the beginning, because understanding the timeline of the 486 - Intel's 4th gener...
This is a DS 3600 analog telephone made by Tesla Stropkov in about 1982. It's still functional and to my mind it's absolutely beautiful. Bu...
Coral.ai TPUs are AI accelerators used for tasks like machine vision and audio processing. Raspberry Pis are often integrated into small robotics and IoT products—or used to analyze live video feeds with Frigate. Until today, nobody I know of has been able to get a PCI Express Coral TPU working on the Raspberry Pi…
[There is very lively discussion on Reddit, where it’s trending at #1 both on r/ios and r/apple . There are a bunch of worthy suggestions there on how to improve the feature even more, but one thing’s clear: iPhone users would love to see this come to more devices.]
The ARM powered Thinkpad x13s is the first truly premium Windows on ARM laptop. Let's see how that actually stacks up as a software engineer!
Windows XP I have a lot of fond memories of Windows XP and after feeling nostalgic, I was happy to find out that it’s relatively easy to take it for a spin on an ARM64 Mac using QEMU. I decided to install XP and an assortment of classic software one final time, taking screenshots of the whole process. This included…
Nike computer - Installed in class room, not BC van. From Rolf Goerigk Left rack has the power supplies - outputs about 7 different voltages. Top panel is switches, meters, voltage warning lights. (Note: in the van installation, this rack is on the right side of the computer.) Middle two racks - operational amplifies…
The solar kiln is based on the well know Virginia Tech design, adapted for my own needs and materials I could find easily on local hardware stores. Mine is a small one, with a gross storage space inside of about 1.5 m in length, 0.85 m wide and 0.65 high (~5’ x 2.75’ x 2’ ).
First, what is an ASIC? An ASIC is an Application Specific Integrated Circuit which basically means that it is an Integrated Circuit on a single piece of silicon and its use is limited to a particu…
Intel's 386 processor (1985) was an important advance in the x86 architecture, not only moving to a 32-bit processor but also switching to a...
The Pixel 8 hardware ( Tensor G3 ) supports the ARM Memory Tagging Extension (MTE) , and software support is available both in Android userspace and the Linux kernel. This feature is a powerful defense against linear buffer overflows and many types of use-after-free flaws. I’m extremely happy to see this hardware…
Personal preference is an interesting thing. People can have a particular preference for something until they are able to experience something else. As we gain experience, our personal preference gets more finely tuned.
Homemade clone of the Dick Smith Wizzard/VTech CreatiVision game console.
The objective for this project was to implement a UDP transmitter for use on the RP2040 that would consume zero CPU time. The system described on this webpage is implemented with 3 PIO state machines, 12 DMA channels, and 1 PWM channel. It generates an NLP, performs packet checksum calculations, and performs packet…
Introduction Part 1 and Part 2 of this series on the Apple Vision Pro (AVP) primarily covered the hardware. Over the next several articles, I plan to discuss the applications Apple (and others) sug…
A couple of things I learned and one reasonable guess.
A few days ago, on a certain orange website, I came across an article about an improvised parallel printer capture device . This contains the line:
