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Ashet Home Computer

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Re: Ashet Home Computer

#81

Post by voidUpdate »

rollcat wrote: post #80
voidUpdate wrote: post #53

This looks really interesting. I'd love to make something like this myself, from scratch, but I know I'd only get about 2 days into it before ADHD brain decided to do something else. Plus I'd be the only person who'd ever use it, and at that point it would be easier just to use a commercial PC. It could make a cool "cyberdeck" though. I'm already thinking about how I could do the bus stuff for the expansion cards, wi…

Since we're having an impromptu ADHD club forming in this thread - I totally feel you. I've had too many ideas like this one, even some prototypes over the years. There are many tricks to stay focused, particularly when there are no stakeholders but you. Try a body double, someone to keep you in check - you can also return the favor, like working from the same room, or just coming to their home to watch them clean wh…

Yeah, I've tended to be more successful at things when my partner is keeping me in check, but she doesn't live with me so that's not very often :P We might end up with a house together in the not too distant future though

Re: Ashet Home Computer

#82

Post by rollcat »

ikskuh wrote: post #75
aa-jv wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually this thing would be a lot sexier if it were in fact complying with Eurorack standards, imho. There's no better environment to be dropping an alternative computing platform than directly into the rack alongside the rest of the interesting modules of the 21st century ..

Creator here! I did consider Euro Rack, 19" racks, MiniATX and other case standards. But with any of these options, i wouldnt be able to keep the price low. The case including all parts and assembly cost is roughly at 20€ per device. It's an off-the-shelf part, with only lasercutted parts in two materials, and a single custom component which is yet to be determined what's the cheapest manufacturing option. I wanted t…

It looks like it could be future-compatible with a possible Euro Rack refit? Nothing cooler than DIYing a DSP for your DIY modsynth!

Heightwise, it fits: 100mm vs ER's ~128mm; trickier with depth - 180mm vs "deep" ER modules ~100mm. One option would be a rack with no back panel. Power in ER is already being distributed via a ribbon cable so this shouldn't impact the ability to install standard modules. Electrically - 12V, perfect match.

What is the width of each module? Assuming (250mm-case)/8 ~= 30-32mm?

Re: Ashet Home Computer

#83

Post by rollcat »

voidUpdate wrote: post #81
rollcat wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since we're having an impromptu ADHD club forming in this thread - I totally feel you. I've had too many ideas like this one, even some prototypes over the years. There are many tricks to stay focused, particularly when there are no stakeholders but you. Try a body double, someone to keep you in check - you can also return the favor, like working from the same room, or just coming to their home to watch them clean wh…

Yeah, I've tended to be more successful at things when my partner is keeping me in check, but she doesn't live with me so that's not very often :P We might end up with a house together in the not too distant future though

Nothing better than being able to rely on your partner, but really - do reach out. We're all friendly folks, ready to help each other.

Re: Ashet Home Computer

#84

Post by rollcat »

eikenberry wrote: post #29

Their OS is written in Zig! https://github.com/Ashet-Technologies/Ashet-OS Thought it might be of interest to people learning Zig. I bet there are some interesting examples in there.

The OS looks highly opinionated and I respect that. Better to have a single overarching vision than try to do too many things poorly.

However I will question some design choices!

- 32-bit only: the writing is on the wall, many vendors (HW&SW) are slowly moving to kill it off. I guess it's fine, but IMHO each ISA (regardless of pointer width) should just be considered a different ISA. Portability is good, it ensures your software doesn't hardcode too many assumptions about the platform - and weeds out bugs. Just treat an int like an int, and a pointer like a pointer. Distinct types.

- Pure co-op multitasking: it will be completely fine, until you try serious in-system development. Hard reboot any time I make a mistake in a for-loop? Mercy, please :,) Implementing a simple watchdog via a timer interrupt will still keep all of the scheduling logic simple and stupid: it's just another case for a yield call, except now involuntary. The runaway process will simply never see completion, but seeing that it would never yield anyway, I don't see a problem just killing it. And most importantly, the sanity shall be preserved.

Re: Ashet Home Computer

#85

Post by jshaqaw »

I love the spirit of this so believe me I’m not here to denigrate it. Just sharing anecdote of building one of those “retro style” Linux/pi kits with my kids some years ago. I thought having a bare metal style machine would get them entranced by computers like it did in the early 80s. But you can’t roll back the clock. Kids today live saturated in a computerized and digital world no matter how much we may try to shelter them from it. When I saw a bare DOS prompt at age 7 it felt like all the magic in the world at my fingertips. But not for my kids. What once was science fiction to me is no more amazing to them then the fact that we have 24 hour indoor electric lighting at the touch of a switch. It’s just a different world today.

Re: Ashet Home Computer

#86

Post by beala »

rollcat wrote: post #76
lelanthran wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What I think will be next frontier in home computing is truly understanding and owning the systems that run a smart home and that comes with understanding the environment (sensor data, presence detection, etc.) That's gonna be a while coming - we're now entering a stage where we won't even understand the code that gets written. Now, sure, some holdouts will understand the code, but that's not going to be the norm s…

There's a balance to be struck here. Coming from HomeKit, I've tried (_really_ tried) to move to Home Assistant. The gap in usability was too enormous for me to cross, and I'd brand myself a hacker. I won't trust any kind of a "smart" device to operate the front door lock - ever - but smart lightbulbs are still stupid lightbulbs. I can just flick the switch. Privacy concerns are valid - I can be profiled based on usa…

I'm not sure what aspect of smart locks you don't trust. If it's reliability, most also accept a physical key as a backup. As far as security, I'm under no impression that the firmware is free of vulnerabilities, but any hack is likey to be at least as hard as lockpicking the average lock, which most people can master with a 10 minute YouTube tutorial. If you're a lock nerd and have upgraded all your locks to some Fort Knox style Medeco model, then sure a smart lock will probably be a downgrade, but for the average person I don't think it's substantially worse than what they already have.

Re: Ashet Home Computer

#87

Post by ikskuh »

jshaqaw wrote: post #85

I love the spirit of this so believe me I’m not here to denigrate it. Just sharing anecdote of building one of those “retro style” Linux/pi kits with my kids some years ago. I thought having a bare metal style machine would get them entranced by computers like it did in the early 80s. But you can’t roll back the clock. Kids today live saturated in a computerized and digital world no matter how much we may try to shel…

Creator here!

You're absolutely right! I wasn't there either, and i wouldnt want a terminal-only machine.

My goal is providing means and knowledge to those that want it. The Ashet is more meant for technical schools, apprenticeship and "the interested", and definitly requires an initial spark that will make that project interesting to you.

It's here to fill a (percieved) gap and wants to sit more in the professional education part than the "get the kids to computing".

I'd love to have had such a hands-on device in school instead of the bare theory of circuit operation and basics of programming.

Re: Ashet Home Computer

#88

Post by ikskuh »

rollcat wrote: post #82
ikskuh wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Creator here! I did consider Euro Rack, 19" racks, MiniATX and other case standards. But with any of these options, i wouldnt be able to keep the price low. The case including all parts and assembly cost is roughly at 20€ per device. It's an off-the-shelf part, with only lasercutted parts in two materials, and a single custom component which is yet to be determined what's the cheapest manufacturing option. I wanted t…

It looks like it could be future-compatible with a possible Euro Rack refit? Nothing cooler than DIYing a DSP for your DIY modsynth! Heightwise, it fits: 100mm vs ER's ~128mm; trickier with depth - 180mm vs "deep" ER modules ~100mm. One option would be a rack with no back panel. Power in ER is already being distributed via a ribbon cable so this shouldn't impact the ability to install standard modules. Electrically -…

Module spec should be around 85x28x100 mm size, so we'd have a deep module with around 15mm of "front extrusion" to fit the modules.

It's definitly possible to re-layout the backplane into a different mechanical design, and reduce the number of slots

Final specs will be shared soon, i have to do another revision of the hardware design as i figured mechanical properties like that the "stickyness" of PCIe slots is good enough so you dont actually need mechanical screws to fasten the modules

Re: Ashet Home Computer

#89

Post by rollcat »

beala wrote: post #86
rollcat wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a balance to be struck here. Coming from HomeKit, I've tried (_really_ tried) to move to Home Assistant. The gap in usability was too enormous for me to cross, and I'd brand myself a hacker. I won't trust any kind of a "smart" device to operate the front door lock - ever - but smart lightbulbs are still stupid lightbulbs. I can just flick the switch. Privacy concerns are valid - I can be profiled based on usa…

I'm not sure what aspect of smart locks you don't trust. If it's reliability, most also accept a physical key as a backup. As far as security, I'm under no impression that the firmware is free of vulnerabilities, but any hack is likey to be at least as hard as lockpicking the average lock, which most people can master with a 10 minute YouTube tutorial. If you're a lock nerd and have upgraded all your locks to some Fo…

Gold coins were replaced by paper money. Paper money was replaced by credit cards. Now credit cards are being replaced by smartphone wallets. My phone or watch can still pay for stuff while they're offline. For the past 5 years, I didn't carry a physical wallet. I'm doing more with less, and failing safe.

If the lock freaks out - and yeah, I'm having problems with my HomeKit stuff every now and then - I need the physical key on me. That already defeats the purpose. Otherwise I need to grab the spare key from wherever I keep it. This is not a mere inconvenience, this is an emergency procedure.

Re: Ashet Home Computer

#90

Post by ikskuh »

rollcat wrote: post #84
eikenberry wrote: post #29

Their OS is written in Zig! https://github.com/Ashet-Technologies/Ashet-OS Thought it might be of interest to people learning Zig. I bet there are some interesting examples in there.

The OS looks highly opinionated and I respect that. Better to have a single overarching vision than try to do too many things poorly. However I will question some design choices! - 32-bit only: the writing is on the wall, many vendors (HW&SW) are slowly moving to kill it off. I guess it's fine, but IMHO each ISA (regardless of pointer width) should just be considered a different ISA. Portability is good, it ensures y…

Creator here!

Yes, the OS is highly opinionated, as just making another linux is incredibly boring for me!

The 32-bit only constraint is mainly due to my focus on smaller architectures, especially microcontrollers.

x86_64 and aarch64 both have much more complex initialiastion schemes, and also use much more complex page table setups.

Thus, i wanted to keep that out of the system, considering i'm targeting systems with a tiny fraction of the 4 GiB memory limit.

The co-op multitasking is a part of the OS, and the OS doesn't give you preemptive multitasking. I never said i won't implement sanity safeguards! Just killing off a hanging process that doesnt yield for more than 1-5 secs is totally i scope and increases user friendlyness. but considering the system reboots in 1.2 s on target hw right now, the user will maybe just have hit reset by then :D

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