Digital Fanatics

Wilson and Furber of ARM

e8johan — Fri, 11 May 2012 08:00:11 +0000

The story behind ARM, and the technology centre in Cambridge fashinates me. Go read some of it at reghardware. I’ll inspire you with a quote.

Herman Hauser was once asked why a great British success story like Acorn finally failed. He queried the last word: “There are over 100 companies in the Cambridge area that can trace their beginnings back to Acorn, and have been founded by Acorn alumni. ARM has now sold over ten billion processors, ten times more than Intel.”

Cooking a Computer

e8johan — Wed, 09 May 2012 09:00:04 +0000

Over at 8 Bit Spaghetti, Kyle is building an 8 bit computer from discrete components. To repeat this feat, go over to Instructables and read the guide.

Personally, I enjoy his reading tips. Recommending books that are 20 and almost 40 years old for a digital project really makes me think. Despite working in a field that progresses so quickly, the base knowledge is still the same. I wonder how many of today’s developers know what the 7400-series is.

Another part of his journey that brings back memories is the chapter with his accounts of micro programming. A good micro programmer and a nice set of buses can really make the difference between an average and a quick computer. It also shows how closely related the digital hardware and actual programming actually are.

Landing on the Moon

e8johan — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 07:00:32 +0000

Anyone longing for the classic Lunar Lander title from the late ’70s. Anyone looking to create something more realistic. Over at ibiblio, a collection of documents regarding the Apollo missions can be found. This is not popular science or simplified truths. You will find actual assembly code for the various computers used and the papers describing the algorithms used.

RaspberryPi Schematics

e8johan — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 08:00:42 +0000

As the model B of RaspberryPi has been released and deliveries are starting, the schematics have been made available. Great stuff!

Old Magnets

e8johan — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 08:00:37 +0000

My recollection from using floppy disks is that they where notoriously prone to failure. Now imagine trying to read you old collection of disks not used since the late 1990′s. Before you run off collecting your disk and run fsck or let Windows try to repair them, you should consider your options.

Special disk controllers such as DiskFerret help in this task. By increasing the sample frequency and storing data for analysis, even aged disks can be read and restored.

A story of the usage of such a device, in combination with some nice vintage hardware can be read at Jordan Mechner’s blog. He wrote Prince of Persia for the Apple II, and now, 20 years later, the source code has been recovered.

Printing at Home

e8johan — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 08:00:19 +0000

If you would have asked me two years ago if I’d have a cheap, reliable 3D printer at home, I would have laughed. And yet, here I am, waiting for a print to finish.

The printer in itself, a Huxley from eMaker (now RepRapPro), is a small miracle. Relatively cheap and reliable in operation. However, the big change is what you can create from home.

Being able to create an exact piece of plastic from a CAD drawing has revolutionized my ability to produce machinery. It might be to create a replacement part for something at home, and adapter, or a corner piece for something (I make way too many corners these days). Having a 3D printer really lets the inner child out. Nothing is impossible anymore!

Simple Painterbot

e8johan — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 08:00:05 +0000

After some inspiration from Lorenzo Bravi via makezine, built a small painterbot from a toilet paper roll, a small motor, a nut, a battery and some velcro.

The nut is taped to the driveshaft of the motor to provide the vibrations. Then engine and battery are fastened to the inside of the roll, while the outside can be covered with pens.

By being able to move the mass around, adjust the angle of the vibrations and play with the positions of the pens, various patterns can be achieved. Using pens with caps, pens with rubber ends, etc adds yet another dimension to the tool. The only thing that I need now is a large paper and a table with edges.

The CPU Database

e8johan — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 08:00:03 +0000

For all of you microprocessor historians out there, Stanford has composed a microprocessor database. It has information about performance, processes, relationships, micro architectures, etc. All readily available for searching, browsing or visualization.

via osnews.

EagleUp

e8johan — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 06:00:19 +0000

The EagleUp tool helps you generate nice 3D drawings from your Eagle PCB designs. The work is the result of the efforts from Jerome Lamy, an electronics design engineer. To get started, visit the nice video tutorial on the project site.

via make.

3D LED Matrix

e8johan — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 08:00:09 +0000

Fredrik Petrini has posted a detailed build instruction for a 3D LED matrix. That is, a truly three dimensional display with 125 pixels.

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