181
Learning about PCI-e: Driver and DMA
Creating a simple driver for a simple PCI-e device (in QEMU)
Topics /
Hardware & Electronics
The most popular blog posts about hardware & electronics on Hacker News. 463 posts.
182
Low Cost CO2 Sensors Comparison: Photo-Acoustic vs. NDIR
A comparison of low-cost CO2 sensor technologies, explaining photo-acoustic versus NDIR designs and the tradeoffs behind each approach.
183
Raspberry Pi boosts Pi 5 performance with SDRAM tuning
tl;dr Raspberry Pi engineers tweaked SDRAM timings and other memory settings on the Pi, resulting in a 10-20% speed boost at the default 2.4 GHz clock. I of course had to test overclocking, which got me a 32% speedup at 3.2 GHz! Changes may roll out in a firmware update for all Pi 5 and Pi 4 users soon. My quest for…
184
185
Tenstorrent and the State of AI Hardware Startups
Semi-custom silicon is a bigger problem than Nvidia.
186
They make USB-C cables with displays now
How to turn something as ordinary as an USB-C cable into something that a lot of nerds will want to buy.
187
I replaced my son's school timetable app with an e-paper
How I replaced my son's school timetable app with an e-paper
188
Hand Tracking for Mouse Input (2023)
The other day I saw the launch of Apple Vision Pro, the whole thing was very interesting, but one thing that caught my attention was the finger input. It seems very intuitive, by using the finger pinching as sort of like a cursor or mouse input. I figured I want to try it out, so I took it upon myself to create it.
189
My MEGA65 is finally here
Taking a good look around (both inside and out) of my brand new MEGA65 computer system from Trenz Electronic GmbH.
190
Physical Intelligence's first generalist policy AI can finally do your laundry
Our first generalist policy, π0, a prototype model that combines large-scale multi-task and multi-robot data collection with a new network architecture to enable the most capable and dexterous generalist robot policy to date.
191
Goldene: A single atom layer of gold
For the first time, scientists have managed to create sheets of gold only a single atom layer thick. According to the researchers from LiU this has given the gold new properties that can make it suitable for use in various applications.
192
Running a Raspberry Pi with a read-only root filesystem
While there are downsides, using a read-only root filesystem will dramatically increase your Pi SD card's lifetime.
193
The Hearts of the Super Nintendo
When I start studying a vintage system, the first thing I like to do is understand how its components work together at the hardware level [1] .
194
PiFex: JTAG Hacking with a Raspberry Pi
With this blog post, we'll introduce the PiFex, a basic companion board for the Raspberry Pi designed to teach users the basics of hardware hacking and embedded protocols. We will then demonstrate how to use the PiFex to access a JTAG tap on an undocumented SSD, allowing memory reads and GDB access to the SSD CPU.
195
Mechanical computer relies on kirigami cubes, not electronics
The mechanical computer uses a complex structure of rigid, interconnected polymer cubes to store, retrieve and erase data without relying on electronic components.
196
Reverse-Engineering an IP Camera (2019)
A few days ago I had to replace the old IP camera I use to watch over my dogs and cats, and found out that IP cam technology changed a lot since I bought that old camera. IP cameras are now low-price and ubiquitous. I bought one of those generic models and installed it at my home, expecting to use the same software…
197
Apple Watch Series 10
Apple unveiled Apple Watch Series 10, featuring a refined design and bringing new capabilities to the world’s most popular watch.
198
New 2GB Raspberry Pi 5 has 33% smaller die, 30% idle power savings
Raspberry Pi launched the 2 gig Pi 5 for $50, and besides half the RAM and a lower price, it has a new stepping of the main BCM2712 chip. This is the BCM2712 D0 stepping. Older Pi 5's shipped with a C1. In their blog post, they said: The new D0 stepping strips away all that unneeded functionality, leaving only the…
199
How do MRI Headphones work? (2022)
Thoughts and more by Tom Lingham
200
Reverse-engineering a three-axis attitude indicator from the F-4 fighter plane
We recently received an attitude indicator for the F-4 fighter plane, an instrument that uses a rotating ball to show the aircraft's orienta...
201
Samsung WB850F Firmware Reverse Engineering
Dissecting and symbol-mapping a camera firmware to get around WiFi hotspot mis-detection
202
Deploying Rust in existing firmware codebases
Posted by Ivan Lozano and Dominik Maier, Android Team Android's use of safe-by-design principles drives our adoption of memory-safe languag...
203
Standard cells: Looking at individual gates in the Pentium processor
Intel released the powerful Pentium processor in 1993, a chip to "separate the really power-hungry folks from ordinary mortals." The origin...
204
Demystifying GPU compute architectures
Getting 'low level' with Nvidia and AMD GPUs
205
206
Shmøergh Hog – The making of a simple analog synth
The making of a simple analog synth
207
The Apple IIGS Megahertz Myth
I love the Apple IIGS. It’s a great computer, but could it have been greater? The legend goes that Apple purposefully underclocked its CPU during development to avoid competing with the Macintosh. But is this actually true? Join me for a deep dive into the IIGS architecture, the life the 65816 CPU,
208
A Mini Monitor for a Pi
This post outlines how I used a small 2 inch display as a monitor for my pi. Where it can display tty terminals and X desktops and applications as if it was a normal screen connected over hdmi. My overall goal is to have a sort of handheld “console” that I can connect a keyboard to and use as a normal computer. This…
209
210
First look at the upcoming Starlink Mini
I've owned Starlink Mini for about 6 months, using it for camping, backup internet, and in motion inside my car. Here is my honest review.