This reminds me very strongly of the WireWorld cellular automaton: https://quinapalus.com/wires0.html
(Also, how did you get a post with both text and a link? I didn’t know it was possible.)
Show HN: I made a little digital circuit simulator that operates on PNGs
31–40 of 54 posts
Re: Show HN: I made a little digital circuit simulator that operates on PNGs
#32That's neat. There's lots of interesting circuit simulators on the web now, but has anyone ever seen a toy/simple simulator for VLSI devices? Something where you could draw in metal/poly/whatever layers to create and simulate transistors?
Prime Mover[0] is a pretty fun "IC"[1] puzzle game. ComPressure[2] also scratches a similar itch with a steampunkier vibe.
[0]: https://store.steampowered.com/app/693700/Prime_Mover/
[1]: Scare quotes because these things are ultimately games, not realistic simulations. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
[2]: https://github.com/brejc8/ComPressure (FOSS!), https://store.steampowered.com/app/1528120/ComPressure/
Re: Show HN: I made a little digital circuit simulator that operates on PNGs
#33As a complete layman I wonder if there’s a future where you could use a picture/X-ray of an old CPU architecture and simulate it blindly with an approach similar to yours?
"Blindly" is a stretch but people have built transistor level simulations of old chips from photographs. Check out the delightful Visual 6502 if you've never seen it before: In the summer of 2009, working from a single 6502, we exposed the silicon die, photographed its surface at high resolution and also photographed its substrate. Using these two highly detailed aligned photographs, we created vector polygon models…
I'm not a semiconductor engineer, but one of the problems with this approach is that modern chips are significantly more "3D"; they have tons of layers in them, and you also got stuff like finfets etc to deal with. You can see some of that in here https://www.extremetech.com/computing/193200-intels-14nm-bro...
Re: Show HN: I made a little digital circuit simulator that operates on PNGs
#34Re: Show HN: I made a little digital circuit simulator that operates on PNGs
#35This reminds me very strongly of the WireWorld cellular automaton: https://quinapalus.com/wires0.html (Also, how did you get a post with both text and a link? I didn’t know it was possible.)
Oh yes, that was an inspiration!
Re submission: The submit box says "title and link or text". Must be an inclusive OR, because it gave me no problems.
(I also have JavaScript disabled, so if they block it client side, I haven't noticed.)
Re: Show HN: I made a little digital circuit simulator that operates on PNGs
#36This is great. Well done. Thanks for posting it.
Re: Show HN: I made a little digital circuit simulator that operates on PNGs
#37We’re also working on something like this, but we’re making a game around it https://charperbonaroo.github.io/bls/#0
Very nice! FWIW, I can't figure what to do on the "ride the line" level. I don't understand what the motors do exactly (powering both motors simultaneously makes the car go sideways) and what the sensors are sensing.
You just connect the left sensor to the right motor and the right sensor to the left motor. I think the "light sensors" are measuring the brightness of the ground underneath the car or something. Hence if one of the sensors goes over the black track it won't register.
Re: Show HN: I made a little digital circuit simulator that operates on PNGs
#38We’re also working on something like this, but we’re making a game around it https://charperbonaroo.github.io/bls/#0
Very nice! FWIW, I can't figure what to do on the "ride the line" level. I don't understand what the motors do exactly (powering both motors simultaneously makes the car go sideways) and what the sensors are sensing.
[deleted]
Re: Show HN: I made a little digital circuit simulator that operates on PNGs
#39Have you tried http://Circuitverse.org?
It's by a friend who initiatally built a digital circuit simulator and then turned it into a GitHub like collaborative website.
Re: Show HN: I made a little digital circuit simulator that operates on PNGs
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
https://www.zachtronics.com/kohctpyktop-engineer-of-the-peop... (Flash game)
Zachtronics has a lot of good games in this area. I haven't played this one, but Shenzhen I/O might scratch this itch too: https://www.zachtronics.com/shenzhen-io/
The above is literally a game of CMOS IC design with layout and switch-level simulation -- it's idealized, but by game standards not very much.