271
The M2 is more advanced than it seemed
Apple’s M2 chip uses a newer version of the CPU core instruction set. This increases its capability, thus how well it will cope with future apps and macOS, compared with the M1.
Topics /
Hardware & Electronics
The most popular blog posts about hardware & electronics on Hacker News. 463 posts.
272
Yes, you can play Duck Hunt without a television (but I can't)
Duck Hunt is considered a classic of the Nintendo Entertainment System. But surprisingly, the concept of hunting ducks did not originate in 1984– people have...
273
Floppy8 – A Tiny Computer, in a Floppy Drive (2023)
This post covers the design and creation of the Floppy8, a microcomputer and cartridge system which fits inside a floppy drive. To see it in action, checkout this video! The Floppy8 plays 4K movies and games on custom cartridges, features wireless controllers, status lights, motorized cartridge ejection and more! Simil
274
Error Handling in Baby Toys
Electrical baby toys are interesting to disassemble and look at how it’s made. Not up to the …
275
Microwave spontaneously turned on by its LED display
My microwave oven started to malfunction at around five years old. It started to randomly power on the lamp, fan, and turntable. It progressively got worse over several weeks until it was mostly stuck on. The microwave oven is not usable when this happens: It behaves as if the door were open, causing the control panel…
276
Back to the future: Are hackers the future of amateur radio?
Last fall, under the aegis of Ham Radio Village , I was awarded a grant to take my one-day Tech class on the road. Ham Radio Village believes that more people in technical fields should have amateur radio licenses and that amateur radio is underrepresented in the hacker, STEM/STEAM, and maker communities. Currently…
277
Apple II graphics: More than you wanted to know
The Apple ][ is one of the most iconic vintage computers of all time. But since Wozniak’s monster lasted all the way until 1993 (1995 if you could the IIe ca...
278
Ham Radio 101: What is WSPR?
Learn how WSPR (weak signal propagation reporter) technology is a fascinating facet of the Ham radio hobby in this easy-to-follow article.
279
Earth rotation limits in-body image stabilization to 6.3 stops (2020)
In 2016, Olympus Camera made some buzz in the photo world when they claimed that their new camera was capable of an impressive 6.5 stops of stabilization and that the limiting factor was in fact th…
280
Raspberry Pi 5 now supports Valve's Steam Link
Valve's Steam Link now runs on Raspberry Pi 5 – excellent news for PC game fans who don't want to a lug a PC everywhere.
281
Making a trading Gameboy: A pocket exchange and algo trading platform
An exchange and algo trading station in your pocket!
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Glucoboy
Emulating the unknown: Blood testing device for the GBA
283
Tiny Undervalued Hardware Companions
After playing/working with computers for more then 25 years I started to appreciate small but handy valuable stuff – like adapters or handlers or … yeah – all kind of stuff. With …
284
Upgrading a Toshiba NAS HDD Firmware on Linux
I reversed the firmware updater of my Toshiba HDD to be able to update it on Linux. The following commands should work, USE AT YOUR OWN RISK :
285
VPR: Nordic's First RISC-V Processor
VPR (pronounced “Viper”) is Nordic Semiconductor’s first RISC-V processor, landing in the new nRF54H and nRF54L lines of SoCs after their initial announcements in April and October of 2023 respectively. Readers of this blog are familiar with my long-running obsession interest in RISC-V (see my RISC-V Tips and RISC-V…
286
Bob Heil, K9EID, Silent Key
The American Radio Relay League (ARRL) is the national association for amateur radio, connecting hams around the U.S. with news, information and resources.
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The Nvidia Way
Tae Kim's terrific new book on the story of Nvidia and Jensen Huang
289
Formlabs Form 4 Teardown
Formlabs has recently launched the fourth edition of their flagship SLA printer line, the Form 4 . Of course, I jumped on the chance to do a teardown of the printer; I’m grateful that I was able to do the same for the Form 1 , Form 2 , and Form 3 generations. In addition to learning a lot from the process of tearing…
290
Creating an autopilot in X-Plane using Python
Introduction Today’s post will take us in a slightly different direction than the last few. Today’s post will be about hooking up some Python code to the X-Plane flight simulator to enable development of an autopilot using PID (proportional-integral-derivative) controllers. I’ve been a fan of flight simulators for…
291
Tiny, tamper-proof ID tag can authenticate almost anything
A cryptographic tag developed at MIT uses terahertz waves to authenticate items by recognizing the unique pattern of microscopic metal particles that are mixed into the glue that sticks the tag to the item’s surface.
292
Intel is selling defective 13-14th Gen CPUs
We have been encountering significant problems with Intel CPU stability. Despite all released microcode, BIOS, and firmware updates, the problem remains unresolved.
293
How to improve the RISC-V specification
My main project is to create an executable spec of the Intel Architecture but, every now and then, I get to take a broader look at ISA specifications and think about the strengths and weaknesses of other ISA specs: what makes them work well; and what techniques they could borrow from other specifications. Earlier this…
294
To Nerves from Elixir
I adore Nerves. I recently joined the core team. And I'll be doing my best to help people get along with this lovely way to co-mingle hardware and massively concurrent reliable software.
295
Thoughts on Vision Pro
A month ago, I flew from London to NYC, paid $3500 for a Vision Pro headset at Apple Fifth Avenue, and flew back home. I’ve been using it every day since — here’s what I think. My background, for context: I’ve been working in AR for many years. I built...
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AlphaQubit: AI to identify errors in Quantum Computers
AlphaQubit is an AI-based decoder that identifies quantum computing errors with state-of-the-art accuracy.
298
The first amateur radio station on the moon
The American Radio Relay League (ARRL) is the national association for amateur radio, connecting hams around the U.S. with news, information and resources.
299
They don't make 'em like that any more: the 3.5mm headphone jack socket
What’s the real reason that cellphone manufacturers stopped fitting this simple, robust connector?
300
Implementing neural networks on the "3 cent" 8-bit microcontroller
Bouyed by the surprisingly good performance of neural networks with quantization aware training on the CH32V003, I wondered how far this can be pushed. How much can we compress a neural network whi…