21–30 of 133 posts
"It starts at 0 and executes instructions" is a funny, but mostly true way to express this. Some people are shocked that no magic happens before the instructions start.
https://9esec.io/blog/hardware-assisted-root-of-trust-mechan...
Amongst the first sentences... > It may be thought of as what happens when a whole computer starts, since the CPU is the center of the computer and the place where the action begins. I thought that too. Last year I spent a while getting as low-level as I could and trying to understand how to write a boot loader, a kernel, learn about clocks and pins and interrupts, etc. I thought, "I know, I'll get a Raspberry Pi! Th…
Once you're familiar with that move to a more modern microcontroller like an Arm Cortex-M0, and after that maybe something with off-chip memory, a MMU, etc.
> The memory chips respond by sending the contents of the selected memory cell over the data bus to the CPU. What does that ROM memory cell _physically look like_? How do we physically manipulate it to contain a 1 or a 0 (absence of something)?
Then there's PROM (Programmable Read-Only Memory), which is "empty" (either all 0, or all 1, I don't know the full details) but can be programmed once and that's it. Then there's EPROM (Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory), which can be erased (by exposing the actual chip to UV light), then reprogrammed. Then there is EEPROM (Electrically Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory) which can be electrically erased and reprogrammed. For each type of ROM, once programmed, it good for years, if not forever.
The programming of a PROM, EPROM or EEPROM usually consists of applying a higher than normal voltage to the chip on certain pins and is usually done in a separate device. How these chips works internally (how the gates are arranged, erased, programmed, etc.) is not something I know (being into software). This is just stuff I picked up over the years.
Amongst the first sentences... > It may be thought of as what happens when a whole computer starts, since the CPU is the center of the computer and the place where the action begins. I thought that too. Last year I spent a while getting as low-level as I could and trying to understand how to write a boot loader, a kernel, learn about clocks and pins and interrupts, etc. I thought, "I know, I'll get a Raspberry Pi! Th…
Yeah modern hardware is crazy hard to understand and a lot is proprietary/trademark stuff like you saw on the rpi. Arduino is a good start but it's just so low level that it doesn't get you much further to understanding how a modern system works. One slightly weird but fascinating path I have been playing with is writing programs for old game consoles, particularly the Nintendo DS. You can get full and comprehensive…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah modern hardware is crazy hard to understand and a lot is proprietary/trademark stuff like you saw on the rpi. Arduino is a good start but it's just so low level that it doesn't get you much further to understanding how a modern system works. One slightly weird but fascinating path I have been playing with is writing programs for old game consoles, particularly the Nintendo DS. You can get full and comprehensive…
Just looked in eBay and had no idea there were so many DS systems available.
nand2tetris.org/
Amongst the first sentences... > It may be thought of as what happens when a whole computer starts, since the CPU is the center of the computer and the place where the action begins. I thought that too. Last year I spent a while getting as low-level as I could and trying to understand how to write a boot loader, a kernel, learn about clocks and pins and interrupts, etc. I thought, "I know, I'll get a Raspberry Pi! Th…
Amazing to see that tripod sites are still around.
Amazing to see that tripod sites are still around.
Even stranger: If you go to www.tripod.com, it redirects to https://www.tripod.lycos.com . Going to https://www.lycos.com , you can see that Lycos, one of several search engines that predated Google, is still around. Here's their about page: https://info.lycos.com/about/company-overview/
> The memory chips respond by sending the contents of the selected memory cell over the data bus to the CPU. What does that ROM memory cell _physically look like_? How do we physically manipulate it to contain a 1 or a 0 (absence of something)?