Change of product direction, good and bad news!

[Scott Robison]

Just now, VincentF said:

Vacuum tubes are too complicated, let's use solenoids and other electromechanical-stuff-that-i-dont-know-the-name, with 120V it's safe enough for children ?

I'll see your bet and raise it! My new computer:

[VincentF]

4 minutes ago, Scott Robison said:

I'll see your bet and raise it! My new computer:

It's perfect ! Now we can work out a doom port on it

[BruceMcF]

22 minutes ago, Scott Robison said:

This is why I want to create a dream computer made with vacuum tubes. Transistors are just too dang magical. ?

The funny thing is I understand transistors at a physical level better than I understand vacuum tubes. In the 70s, there were not various vacuum tube electronics magazines explaining them to me ... it was assumed anyone who cared already knew.

[Scott Robison]

Just now, BruceMcF said:

The funny thing is I understand transistors at a physical level better than I understand vacuum tubes. In the 70s, there were not various vacuum tube electronics magazines explaining them to me ... it was assumed anyone who cared already knew.

In reality, my understanding of either is pretty superficial. I just figure there's always a more primitive technology that someone can pull out of their posterior because technology X is just too modern and difficult to understand.

[BruceMcF]

2 minutes ago, Scott Robison said:

In reality, my understanding of either is pretty superficial. I just figure there's always a more primitive technology that someone can pull out of their posterior because technology X is just too modern and difficult to understand.

I'm not saying my understanding of transistors is more than superficial, but compared to my superficial understanding of electrons passing or not passing through semiconductors, my understanding of vacuum tubes is pretty much nonexistent.

The issue of the complexity of the system has more than one dimension, though ... one is how close to the metal can you get in understanding it, or IOW how many layers of magic sauce are underneath the parts you understand ... another is the stability. A system that is simple but where every implementation has this or that tweak to "fix this design decision" or "optimize it for this application" still has an unbounded variety of things to learn to truly master it.

[Robinkle]

I don't mind the use of FPGA's and CPLD's. I see them as ASIC's. 

[Scott Robison]

12 minutes ago, Robinkle said:

I don't mind the use of FPGA's and CPLD's. I see them as ASIC's. 

Because they are ... little ASICs with an eraser so that their fabric can be repaired as needed (from one perspective, anyway).

I realize that not all FPGA are "reprogrammable" ... some are like a PROM, write it once and throw it away if it doesn't work. But reprogrammable ones are more and more common.

[Brad]

Speaking of ASICs...probably way off topic, but what's the possibility of just burning some that duplicate the VIC? Is there some weird licensing thing going on for a 40+ year old chip no one uses anymore?

The intent here being you could completely duplicate a VIC-20 with off-the-shelf parts.

[Wavicle]

3 hours ago, Scott Robison said:

Because they are ... little ASICs with an eraser so that their fabric can be repaired as needed (from one perspective, anyway).



I realize that not all FPGA are "reprogrammable" ... some are like a PROM, write it once and throw it away if it doesn't work. But reprogrammable ones are more and more common.

Many (possibly most?) FPGAs have one-time programmable fuses in addition to SPI bootstrapping. That way a bad actor doesn't flash a new design onto your stove and have it think that it needs to run the gas for 300 seconds instead of milliseconds before igniting it. And your company doesn't have to pay to have the design fabricated into an ASIC.

[Scott Robison]

49 minutes ago, Wavicle said:

Many (possibly most?) FPGAs have one-time programmable fuses in addition to SPI bootstrapping. That way a bad actor doesn't flash a new design onto your stove and have it think that it needs to run the gas for 300 seconds instead of milliseconds before igniting it. And your company doesn't have to pay to have the design fabricated into an ASIC.

I think that was at one time true, but with the continued decrease in cost of memory is isn't nearly as common as it once was. Certainly not the types of FPGAs we would easily have access to that are often used for education or prototyping. But you're right, there are cases where you want a one time programmable ASIC. If nothing else, it will help keep Skynet at bay for a little longer. ?