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How the 8086 processor handles power and clock internally
One under-appreciated characteristic of early microprocessors is the difficulty of distributing power inside the integrated circuit. While...
Topics /
History & Retro Computing
The most popular blog posts about history & retro computing on Hacker News. 4,252 posts.
2252
The Paris Compressed-Air Power Network (2018)
Douglas Self, clockwork, tram, Leveaux,
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Untangling the Tale of Ada Lovelace
Stephen Wolfram shares what he learned in researching Ada Lovelace's life, writings about the Analytical Engine, and computation of Bernoulli numbers.
2254
8086 Processor's microcode pipeline from die analysis
Intel introduced the 8086 microprocessor in 1978, and its influence still remains through the popular x86 architecture. The 8086 was a fai...
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2256
Ten years of V8
An overview of major milestones for the V8 project in the past 10 years as well as the years before, when the project was still secret.
2257
Total Generalship: Commanding Pre-Modern Armies, Part IIIb: Officers
This is the continuation of the third part of our three(ish) part (I, II, IIIa, IIIb, IIIc) series looking at the role of the general in commanding pre-gunpowder armies in battle. Last time we look…
2258
Playable English Localizations of Slovak Digital Games from the Late 80s Period
English translations of early Slovak digital games from the late 80s period, created in cooperation with Slovak Game Developers Association by Stanislav Hrda, Slavomír Labský, Marián Kabát, Darren Chastney, Jakub Celušák and Maroš Brojo. Download gamesENG versions of all games Accompanying contentGuides for all…
2259
The home computer as a cultural object is physically vanishing (2007)
The home computer presents itself through several interfaces, some in software, some in hardware. While it is mostly assumed that these interfaces’ goals are to expose the computing capabilities of the system to its user, obviously interfaces are at the same time responsible for transporting the image of the machine.
2260
286 vs. 386SX
The 386sx wasn't much of an upgrade from the 286, but was popular for a time. Let's take a look at the 286 vs 386sx, and what the SX offered.
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Flying with Machine Guns?
Dynamics of shooting machine guns downwards, and the actual forces, velocities and heights that could be achieved. Modeled with Wolfram SystemModeler.
2263
Yamaha DX7 chip reverse-engineering, part V: the output circuitry
The Yamaha DX7 digital synthesizer (1983) was the classic synthesizer in 1980s pop music. It uses a technique called FM synthesis to produ...
2264
The back cover of C++: The Language raises questions not answered by front cover
Not doing the reading.
2265
Transparency effects in SNES and Genesis games via composite video artifacts
Vintage computers and retro gaming
2266
Debian 7.4 Released
[20 Oct 2014] The Debian Project mourns the loss of Peter Miller [18 Oct 2014] Updated Debian 7: 7.7 released [14 Oct 2014] Debian Project chooses LeaseWeb to provide global snapshot archive [08 Sep 2014] FSF and Debian join forces to help free software users find the hardware they need [31 Aug 2014] DebConf 14 closes…
2267
OpenBSD on Motorola 88000 Processors
Many people know, or have heard of, the Motorola 68000 architecture. These processors have been used in many machines: in the first generations of Apple Macintosh computers, in the ever-rivals Amiga and Atari ST home computers, in many workstations built by Sun , HP and NeXT (to name only a few), but also in many…
2268
Deep Learning: Our Miraculous Year 1990-1991
Many of the basic ideas behind the Deep Learning Revolution were published three decades ago within fewer than 12 months in our "Annus Mirabilis" 1990-91
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Bill Godbout, a legend in the S-100 community, died in the Camp wildfire
Bill Godbout, a legend in the S-100 community for his 1970s-1980s work at Godbout Electronics and CompuPro, perished November 8 due to the Camp wildfire in Concow, California. He was 79.
2272
The KindleBerry Pi
Curious, how’s the refresh rate? Does the e-ink display refresh fast enough to make typing bearable?
2273
We Keep Telling the Myth of a Renaissance Golden Age and Bad Middle Ages (2020)
“If the Black Death caused the Renaissance, will COVID also create a golden age?”
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2275
Green Arabia
It was a dark day when Islam met the loudspeaker. All travelers to the Middle East discover that this normally self-assured religion gets insecure in the small hours of night and feels it has to rehearse its foundational beliefs, in public, at 190 dB.
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2277
Atari Asteroids: Creating a Vector Arcade Classic
As Atari’s best-selling arcade game of all time, Asteroids was literally a game changer. Released in December 1979, it was responsible for catapulting Atari into mainstream public consciousne…
2278
Eight Years of Firefox
Eight years ago today, Mozilla launched the first version of Firefox. We had the audacity to believe that we could change things. We believed that a commun
2279
Whatever happened to Channel 1?
On June 15, 1936, the FCC began informal hearings concerning the radio spectrum above 30 MHz. There was an increasing demand for those frequencies and a new word began to be heard at the FCC; that word was standards. The Radio Manufacturers Association (RMA), the trade association for the radio and television…
2280
Guybrush Fact vs. Fiction
Ron Gilbert's often incoherent and bitter ramblings about the Game Industry