Tag: hardware

CPU explainer

Okay, so you’re a CS graduate and you did a hardware/assembly course as part of your degree, but perhaps that was a few years ago now and you haven’t really kept up with the details of processor designs since then.

You might not be aware of some key topics that developed rapidly in recent times.
pipelining (superscalar, OoO, VLIW, branch prediction, predication)
multi-core & simultaneous multithreading (SMT, hyper-threading)
SIMD vector instructions (MMX/SSE/AVX, AltiVec)
caches and the memory hierarchy

This article will get you up to speed fast. In no time you’ll be discussing the finer points of in-order vs out-of-order, hyper-threading, multi-core and cache organization like a pro.

Everything is hackable

the point where you can assume that everything that has a power source also has an OS you can hack is not too far off.

there is no standard protocol or method to inspect and attest to the contents of the code running on the memory card’s microcontroller. Those in high-risk, high-sensitivity situations should assume that a “secure-erase” of a card is insufficient to guarantee the complete erasure of sensitive data.

Shenzhen

Bunnie Huang, a Research Affiliate for the MIT Media Lab with a PhD at MIT in EE, shares some stories about crossing the gap from a single home-made prototype to mass production, using supply chain services located in the Shenzhen area of China.

2015-06-04:

HAX invites teams with working prototypes to come to Shenzhen, China, for 4 months. Once they arrive, creators work with experts in a variety of fields to shape their designs, products and strategies. It’s like a boot camp for the world’s hardware-heads, in the heart of the most frenzied manufacturing hub on the planet.

i like to make fun of kickstarter but this is really cool, and much more useful than Y Combinator.
2015-08-10:

When it comes to manufacturing, no place in the world has the same kind of allure as the Pearl River Delta region of China. Within just a hour-long train ride, 2 vastly different cultures co-exist, each with its unique appeal that keeps attracting engineers, entrepreneurs and hustlers alike. On the mainland side, cities like Shenzhen and Guangzhou bring the promise of cheap components, low-cost contract work, and the street cred of “having done the Shenzhen thing.” And on the island, the capitalist utopia called Hong Kong glows with all of its high finance and stories of lavish expat lifestyles.

2017-01-20:

Shenzhen completed 11 skyscrapers. That’s more than the US and Australia combined.

2017-02-05: if you want to bring manufacturing back, you have to switch to open source hardware and scrap all the patents overhead. as long as everything is slowed down by lawyers, shenzhen will innovate 3-10x faster.