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Show HN: A game where you build a GPU

jaso1024.com

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Re: Show HN: A game where you build a GPU

#141

Post by Jaso1024 »

hristov wrote: post #126

Ok you have put a lot of work in this and it looks impressive. But it needs a serious balance change. It is far too hard. Currently this may work as a brain teaser for people in the industry or people with computer engineering degrees, but it wont bring any fresh young minds into the industry. The fresh young minds will be scared off. Teaching is challenging stuff. You have to step out of your current mindset and thi…

lol, yeah, the time should be fixed though rn I think? depending on what level of difficulty you select in the racer game. The wiring is something I've been struggling with, working on making it better.

I intentionally made it s.t the truth tables are based on not just the input into the node, but based on all actual inputs to the node (so if you have additional processing on input x and y, itll show you the not w/ respect to input x and y and not just the immediate input).

will add a rotating cue in the next update

Re: Show HN: A game where you build a GPU

#142

Post by Jaso1024 »

dminik wrote: post #132

Some feedback: - Nice idea, though after playing Turing complete, I would like to skip the beginning and move to stuff that makes GPUs different to CPUs. But it's understandable. - I'm not smart enough to intuit NAND from transistors. I'm also not sure I will be alone in that. It's such a weird difficulty wall. - Speaking of, the difficulty is all over the place. Though easy mode is appreciated. - Even with a n key r…

Fixed some of these in the update I just pushed, will fix the rest in the next update. Any thoughts on how to scale the difficulty a bit better?

Re: Show HN: A game where you build a GPU

#144

Post by hristov »

Jaso1024 wrote: post #141
hristov wrote: post #126

Ok you have put a lot of work in this and it looks impressive. But it needs a serious balance change. It is far too hard. Currently this may work as a brain teaser for people in the industry or people with computer engineering degrees, but it wont bring any fresh young minds into the industry. The fresh young minds will be scared off. Teaching is challenging stuff. You have to step out of your current mindset and thi…

lol, yeah, the time should be fixed though rn I think? depending on what level of difficulty you select in the racer game. The wiring is something I've been struggling with, working on making it better. I intentionally made it s.t the truth tables are based on not just the input into the node, but based on all actual inputs to the node (so if you have additional processing on input x and y, itll show you the not w/ r…

Yes the timing is fixed. Appreciate the quick changes. Good luck!

Re: Show HN: A game where you build a GPU

#146

Post by roadbuster »

brcmthrowaway wrote: post #123
roadbuster wrote: post #40

I worked on deep sub-micron, full custom mixed-signal integrated circuits for more than a decade, and I can't pass the first level. > Wire an NMOS transistor so that when In is 1, the output is pulled to ground (0). When In is 0, the output should be unconnected (Z). Certainly: (a) The nMOS has 3 connections: its drain is only connected to the output (no +Vdd supply), it's source is tied to ground, it's gate is tied…

Did you switch to software?

Yes. But, looking at BRCM/AVGO's stock chart, I may have made a mistake.

Re: Show HN: A game where you build a GPU

#147

Post by drivers99 »

dminik wrote: post #132

Some feedback: - Nice idea, though after playing Turing complete, I would like to skip the beginning and move to stuff that makes GPUs different to CPUs. But it's understandable. - I'm not smart enough to intuit NAND from transistors. I'm also not sure I will be alone in that. It's such a weird difficulty wall. - Speaking of, the difficulty is all over the place. Though easy mode is appreciated. - Even with a n key r…

> I'm not smart enough to intuit NAND from transistors. I'm also not sure I will be alone in that. It's such a weird difficulty wall.

I agree with you, because I feel like I only got that one because I happened to get curious about CMOS (PMOS + NMOS) logic earlier this year, and remembered the general idea from before. Otherwise, I don't think I would have figured that out either. Google image search for CMOS NAND basically shows the solution, but the game doesn't tell you that's what it is until after you beat the level. I think seeing the answer, then immediate trying to reproduce it from memory is a good way to learn. Then if you try again the next day/week/month and are still able to remember it, then you've learned it.

I also looked up a solution for the full adder since I couldn't quite remember how it worked.

Tangentially, I've gone through similar material over time repeatedly in the games nandgame and Turing Complete, going through the Nand 2 Tetris course (on Coursera), building Ben Eater's breadboard 8-bit computer, reading "Code" by Charles Petzold and "The Pattern on the Stone" by Danny Hillis and "Digital Computer Electronics" by Malvino since that was what Ben Eater partly based his computer design on, and going over digital logic in CS-related EE courses up through how a CPU is made. But most of those barely cover anything below the logic gate level and I don't think any of them covered CMOS/NMOS/PMOS specifically which is why I got curious about them this year.

It's pretty fun though (my type of fun anyway), and I'm really curious to see how the rest of it goes since it's building a GPU instead of a CPU for a change.

Re: Show HN: A game where you build a GPU

#148

Post by everyos_ »

This seems really cool, haven't played it yet but I took a glance at the first two levels and it looks similar to another game I've played - will definitely play through it when I get a chance. I wanna make a GPU but my board doesn't have nearly ennough dsp units, so a virtual one like in this game will have to suffice lol
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