31–40 of 176 posts
I recall there being a game mentioned somewhere here on HN, where you start with basic logic gates (I think), and you build up a fundamental CPU at the end of the game, using the parts you discovered along the way. Problem is, I don't remember what the game is called, and no amount of searching seems to help me. Anyone know what it was called?
I recall there being a game mentioned somewhere here on HN, where you start with basic logic gates (I think), and you build up a fundamental CPU at the end of the game, using the parts you discovered along the way. Problem is, I don't remember what the game is called, and no amount of searching seems to help me. Anyone know what it was called?
I recall there being a game mentioned somewhere here on HN, where you start with basic logic gates (I think), and you build up a fundamental CPU at the end of the game, using the parts you discovered along the way. Problem is, I don't remember what the game is called, and no amount of searching seems to help me. Anyone know what it was called?
perhaps this https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28735441
Thanks
I've always been curious how someone gets into this line of work. Is it all via college / post education and your directly recruited by these companies? Obviously, this is a very hard (impossible?) thing to teach yourself. I can't imagine more than a few universities offer this type of education? Where would you start / what path would you go down to be a chip designer / work for an Intel / AMD ???
It would be difficult to learn on your own as explained in the article: you need a lot of specialized equipment, a high class of clean room, and a lot of very dangerous chemicals. (My brother once described what the hydrofluoric acid he used semi-regularly does to person and completely horrified our parents).
Downside of this field is that there are very few job opportunities without relocating. If you're in the US, you can work at Intel... or Intel. Unless you're willing to move to Taiwan and work at TSMC.
I recall there being a game mentioned somewhere here on HN, where you start with basic logic gates (I think), and you build up a fundamental CPU at the end of the game, using the parts you discovered along the way. Problem is, I don't remember what the game is called, and no amount of searching seems to help me. Anyone know what it was called?
I recall there being a game mentioned somewhere here on HN, where you start with basic logic gates (I think), and you build up a fundamental CPU at the end of the game, using the parts you discovered along the way. Problem is, I don't remember what the game is called, and no amount of searching seems to help me. Anyone know what it was called?
Circuit designer here - feel free to ask any questions about the manufacturing process, design etc. Having a thorough understanding of the process, I thought this was hilarious. But if you really want to understand the process, it's pretty terrible. It spends 10 steps on making a wafer, and then the bulk of the actual process is condensed to 16.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I got my electrical and computer engineering (ECE) degree in 1999 from UIUC and learned everything but the very lowest-level chemistry, because I specialized in the VLSI (circuit design) side instead of fab. At that point, stuff like MIPS and the DEC Alpha were popular, and computers were just breaking the 1 GHz barrier. Unfortunately the dot bomb happened right after I graduated, and the anti-intellectual backlash o…
> anti-intellectual backlash of the early 2000s I've never heard of this. Could you elaborate, please?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I got my electrical and computer engineering (ECE) degree in 1999 from UIUC and learned everything but the very lowest-level chemistry, because I specialized in the VLSI (circuit design) side instead of fab. At that point, stuff like MIPS and the DEC Alpha were popular, and computers were just breaking the 1 GHz barrier. Unfortunately the dot bomb happened right after I graduated, and the anti-intellectual backlash o…
> anti-intellectual backlash of the early 2000s I've never heard of this. Could you elaborate, please?
The hilarity illustrates an important point. We never just make a thing. A recipe or blueprint is a convenient fiction. Rather we participate in a dynamic evolving process which itself evolved through many cycles of copying, repetition and debugging. Even the first version wasn't strictly original because the idea was borrowed from elsewhere. 'Oh you work at the olive press. How would you like a job with this new-fan…
https://www.howtoinventeverything.com/
What I got from this is that I could make homemade coal by myself, MAYBE. I don't know if there's any climate on Earth where I could eek out a net energy return on primitive crops. If there was no one telling me what to do, I would surely starve in early agricultural times. But hey, that's what the Pharaoh's for, amirite?
Basic bronze tools are a mind-numbing mess to mentally process.