22-year-old builds chips in his parents’ garage • Hacker News Board

Re: 22-year-old builds chips in his parents’ garage

#41

Post by giantg2 » Sun, Jan 23, 2022, 1:04 PM UTC

dang wrote: post #2

Past related threads. Others? A home-made lithographically-fabricated integrated circuit (2018) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28263714 - Aug 2021 (13 comments) DIY Silicon: Man Builds Integrated Circuit That's Similar to Intel's 4004 CPU - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28208614 - Aug 2021 (6 comments) Making 100 transistors silicon integrated circuit chips in your garage - https://news.ycombinator.com…

Looks like someone has a thing for homemade chips :)

These links are really helpful. Maybe I'll try making one someday.

Re: 22-year-old builds chips in his parents’ garage

#42

Post by amelius » Sun, Jan 23, 2022, 1:07 PM UTC

futharkshill wrote: post #25

> Zeloof’s family was supportive but also cautious. His father asked a semiconductor engineer he knew to offer some safety advice. As impressive and independent as this is, you have to wonder if any other gifted child could have done the same feat. The article seems to skip over this point, how many people know a "semiconductor engineer"?

This is what I think whenever I see an Olympic gold medal athlete. Would they even be on the winners podium if every other person out there attempted to reach that place?

However, most winners have had to deal with losing, so they know they should be humble about it.

Re: 22-year-old builds chips in his parents’ garage

#43

Post by b112 » Sun, Jan 23, 2022, 1:11 PM UTC

stackbutterflow wrote: post #28

xvector wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

TC isn't everything. I'm pulling truly bonkers TC at 26, and yet I feel a deep void inside me. I recently realized that this void is because I am not living by my ideals/purpose. I know what I want to do in life, I know how I want to contribute to the story of humanity, and yet I am letting my greed overrule me and force me into a different path. Essentially, I am betraying myself, and this causes that feeling of unf…

Trust me it's not better on the other side. Followed my dreams and I'll forever be financially decades behind you (i.e I'll never catch up) unless I win the lottery or something. I'm 100% sure if I were in your shoes I too would feel exactly as you do. The lesson here is to be content with what we have and what we've done. At least now you have the financial freedom to spend the rest of your life more or less as you…

This.

For whatever reason (personality, genes, whatever), I do not seem to be one who gets caught up in the envy of greener grass.

https://writingexplained.org/idiom-dictionary/grass-is-alway...

I've spent a large part of my life as a high end specialist, consulting, and thus, have had incredibly encompassing exposure to a huge variety of companies.

Whether non-profits, government departments, or corps, it's humans which cause the often ineffectual result, of our loving attempts to being order, and stability to our labourious output.

People are the same everywhere, and thus, so your endeavours will be.

The grass is not greener on the other side.

So what I would say is:

* if you strike out on your own, you can at least move on past things which bore you

* you need true financial independence to achieve this, to become a relaxed garage tinkerer of tech

* right now, we are at a moment of golden opportunity. The markets are down. This is where you buy in. The returns are buying in these times, not in time of feast.

So... maybe this is a good time to reassess. Invest. And plan to retire once you profit?

Re: 22-year-old builds chips in his parents’ garage

#44

Post by mysterydip » Sun, Jan 23, 2022, 1:12 PM UTC

osrec wrote: post #18

TrackerFF wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's hard to compete with FAANG, Finance, and Consulting. Unfortunately, that's where a lot of people end up.

Comfortable money + marketing hype keep it that way unfortunately. If governments really wanted to prioritise innovation, they should consider giving a banker's salary to a research scientist.

At least in the US, they're generally limited to salaries on the "general schedule", and management gets paid more than technical people, because "it wouldn't be fair" to have subordinates that make more than you. So there's a built-in glass ceiling for tech careers. https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/pay-leave/salaries...

Re: 22-year-old builds chips in his parents’ garage

#45

Post by rosndo » Sun, Jan 23, 2022, 1:13 PM UTC

icefox11 wrote: post #23

artemonster wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you don‘t have anything to say on topic, then just…don‘t say anything

Your definition of "anything" appears to encompass only "positive" things.

Is being rich a “negative” thing now?

It’s just a completely worthless observation, take the pointless virtue signaling somewhere else.

Re: 22-year-old builds chips in his parents’ garage

#46

Post by xor99 » Sun, Jan 23, 2022, 1:14 PM UTC

qayxc wrote: post #35

Avamander wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A thousand dollars is an achievable amount of money for a smart kid in a poor family. I have had good friends from really poor families in Europe make more from bug bounty programs. If that's you're trying imply.

> If that's you're trying imply. That's just one piece of equipment, though. Plus it's one of the cheaper parts and let's not mention the fact that this "spare garage" is bigger than many apartments in other parts of the world... So it's not insignificant at all. If you live in a rented apartment (e.g. about 60% of all Swiss people), not even money will make up for the fact that you simply cannot do something like th…

Yeah, no denying other factors but repairing that electron microscope is no walk in the park and it prob enables others to do it even cheaper given the walkthrough style tutorial. I'm just replying to a pretty flippant characterisation (see top comment) and not ignorant about other issues relating to circumstances and location like you mention.

Re: 22-year-old builds chips in his parents’ garage

#47

Post by tyingq » Sun, Jan 23, 2022, 1:15 PM UTC

moring wrote: post #3

Does anyone have an idea whether there is a potential hobbyist market for home-grown chips of this size? I know that I would definitely be willing to spend around $100 for a much smaller chip, like quad-gates or slightly above (1200 transistors is way beyond what I thought is possible in a garage), more the larger the chip gets, and ultimately including getting involved in the design of the chip -- but then of course…

I would guess the market would be pretty fragmented, with only so much demand for each chip. Right now, for example, some people buy FPGA based replacements for Commodore 64 "SID" chips, because the originals do fail. Some amount of purists might prefer a "real" chip. But how many? There are also simpler chips in this space that are in demand. Old Kaypros have a couple of custom gate array chips that are hard to replicate, for example.

Or maybe the retro chip synthesizer crowd would buy a product, but again...how many?

Re: 22-year-old builds chips in his parents’ garage

#48

Post by stathibus » Sun, Jan 23, 2022, 1:16 PM UTC

futharkshill wrote: post #25

> Zeloof’s family was supportive but also cautious. His father asked a semiconductor engineer he knew to offer some safety advice. As impressive and independent as this is, you have to wonder if any other gifted child could have done the same feat. The article seems to skip over this point, how many people know a "semiconductor engineer"?

I am quite confident that almost nobody could have blazed this trail, even with the same support network. The resilience, ingenuity and practical skill required is outrageous.

Re: 22-year-old builds chips in his parents’ garage

#49

Post by was_a_dev » Sun, Jan 23, 2022, 1:17 PM UTC

I've followed this project for a while. And while it truly is an impressive feat, I just wonder how did he afford all this equipment.

I'm 24 and a physics PhD student, and just afforded my first soldering iron. I lack the space, let alone the equipment to attempt anything close to this.

What a lucky, talented guy!

Re: 22-year-old builds chips in his parents’ garage

#50

Post by selimthegrim » Sun, Jan 23, 2022, 1:22 PM UTC

rzzzt wrote: post #34

hidden-spyder wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is TC?

Was about to ask the same thing. There are ~280 resolutions to that initialism on a random website that I've found, none of which are easily applicable to the context.

Total Comp here, but in the subcontinent it also stands for something vulgar, so clarification or avoiding it is probably best.