Apollo 11 Guidance Computer vs. USB-C Chargers
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Apollo 11 Guidance Computer vs. USB-C Chargers
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Re: Apollo 11 Guidance Computer vs. USB-C Chargers
#2And that's nothing. Wait for AI in power sockets! For now, they only have simple processors in USB-C charger, but soon there will be more intelligence in there, than you can imagine! :-)
Re: Apollo 11 Guidance Computer vs. USB-C Chargers
#3This is awesome! The media loves to say your pocketwatch is more powerful than X form $date. This is a fun technical rundown.
I think at some point we have to start talking about how far from optimized we are https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MenuetOS comes to mind when talking about what can be done in fasm. Are we ever going to get compilers to the point where we can squash things down to that size and efficiency? Is this yet another thing that AI can promise to solve someday?
Re: Apollo 11 Guidance Computer vs. USB-C Chargers
#4Reading this was a lot of fun. Great effort!
Re: Apollo 11 Guidance Computer vs. USB-C Chargers
#5This just made me realise that these chargers are probably not running on Free Software.
Is it possible to update their firmware? I.e., is there an equivalent of an "update firmware" button anywhere? If so, Richard Stallman would not approve of using these non-free chargers. We should not even mention them, lest anyone would think it's acceptable to use them for anything.
Re: Apollo 11 Guidance Computer vs. USB-C Chargers
#6I admit I didn't understand much of that but enjoyed reading it none the less.
I wonder about the hardware selected for say a charger, is it maybe just that the power (CPU, memory) are just a factor of that being the most cost effective choice and the power (cpu, memory) are far more than a USB charger needs?
Re: Apollo 11 Guidance Computer vs. USB-C Chargers
#7This just made me realise that these chargers are probably not running on Free Software. Is it possible to update their firmware? I.e., is there an equivalent of an "update firmware" button anywhere? If so, Richard Stallman would not approve of using these non-free chargers. We should not even mention them, lest anyone would think it's acceptable to use them for anything.
Neither do pacemakers. God forbid RMS ever needs an arrhythmia corrected...
Re: Apollo 11 Guidance Computer vs. USB-C Chargers
#8This just made me realise that these chargers are probably not running on Free Software. Is it possible to update their firmware? I.e., is there an equivalent of an "update firmware" button anywhere? If so, Richard Stallman would not approve of using these non-free chargers. We should not even mention them, lest anyone would think it's acceptable to use them for anything.
Neither do pacemakers. God forbid RMS ever needs an arrhythmia corrected...
But is updating the firmware a normal function of pacemakers?
He makes a distinction on the update-firmware level — if the microwave has no such functionality, then he does not consider it a computer. Look for "microwave" at http://stallman.org/stallman-computing.html:
> As for microwave ovens and other appliances, if updating software is not a normal part of use of the device, then it is not a computer. In that case, I think the user need not take cognizance of whether the device contains a processor and software, or is built some other way. However, if it has an "update firmware" button, that means installing different software is a normal part of use, so it is a computer.
Re: Apollo 11 Guidance Computer vs. USB-C Chargers
#9I admit I didn't understand much of that but enjoyed reading it none the less. I wonder about the hardware selected for say a charger, is it maybe just that the power (CPU, memory) are just a factor of that being the most cost effective choice and the power (cpu, memory) are far more than a USB charger needs?
I'd guess at one point you simply can't buy anything cheaper than 10MHz?
I'm updating my laptop; it'd probably be fully sufficient to have just 16GB DDR4 (I have just 4GB right now, and it ain't that bad), but I can get a 32GB stick for only like 110 USD, so, I might as well go for 32GB to max out the slot and not have to worry about it later on. If the price for 32GB sticks was more like $500, I'd probably not bother (although it'd arguably still be a good investment in our profession here, it's just a little more hard to justify when you know the price will come down relatively soon, and you don't quite need that much RAM in the immediate future anyways).
Re: Apollo 11 Guidance Computer vs. USB-C Chargers
#10I admit I didn't understand much of that but enjoyed reading it none the less. I wonder about the hardware selected for say a charger, is it maybe just that the power (CPU, memory) are just a factor of that being the most cost effective choice and the power (cpu, memory) are far more than a USB charger needs?
I'd guess at one point you simply can't buy anything cheaper than 10MHz? I'm updating my laptop; it'd probably be fully sufficient to have just 16GB DDR4 (I have just 4GB right now, and it ain't that bad), but I can get a 32GB stick for only like 110 USD, so, I might as well go for 32GB to max out the slot and not have to worry about it later on. If the price for 32GB sticks was more like $500, I'd probably not bothe…
That's kinda what I'm assuming. As a chip maker one chip that covers like X use cases might be more powerful than a lot of them need, but it covers all those use cases.