Howdy,
I guess this might be of interest to some people here...
----- Forwarded message from jim bell <jdb10987(a)yahoo.com> -----
Date: Sat, 13 Aug 2022 06:12:59 +0000 (UTC)
From: jim bell <jdb10987(a)yahoo.com>
To: CypherPunks <cypherpunks(a)lists.cpunks.org>
Subject: Google Program to Free Chips Boosts University Semiconductor Design
https://www.hpcwire.com/2022/08/11/google-program-to-free-chips-boosts-univ…
August 11, 2022
A Google-led program to design and manufacture chips for free is
becoming popular among researchers and computer enthusiasts.
The search giant’s open silicon program is providing the tools for
anyone to design chips, which then get manufactured. Google foots the
entire bill, from a chip’s conception to delivery of the final product
in a user’s hand.
Google’s Open MPW program includes an open-source design toolkit from
a company called EFabless, which also manages the program.
Enthusiasts and researchers have to submit their chip design, which
then gets manufactured in the factories of SkyWater on the 130nm
process. The submission deadline for the latest Open MPW program is
September 12.
Open MPW’s popularity can be measured by the number of projects using
Efabless’ EDA tools. Chips from about 240 open-source silicon projects
via Efabless’ tools will be manufactured in Skywater’s factories, Mike
Wishart, CEO of Efabless.
“The total projects posted on our site are like 570. That has gone
extremely well. It’s diverse, from 25 countries,” Wishart said.
Efabless had about 160 tapeouts in 2021, and had no tapeouts in 2020.
Efabless provides a simple design EDA tool to make chips, which is
mostly about dragging and dropping the core elements inside a chip. An
open-source PDK (process design kit) prepares the chip for fabrication
in factories.
The Open MPW program added recent partners, including the
U.S. Department of Defense, which last month poured $15 million into
the project to get open-source chips made on SkyWater’s 90nm
process. GlobalFoundries also joined the alliance and will also
manufacture chips on the 180nm node.
The manufacturing technology provided through the project is very old,
but it is cost-effective. Intel, Apple and others make expensive chips
on the more advanced processes such as 5nm, which uses cutting-edge
technology and provides the fastest computing in devices.
Open MPW is popular in academia and research, and for those
experimenting or testing chips and need small batches, Wishart said.
“Our incentive is to make it simple for more and more people and grow
a community around those executing designs… [on] nodes that are more
accessible to them and therefore lower costs,” Wishart said.
Typically, chips can be expensive to manufacture, and factories are
open to corporations. But Open MPW makes factories available to
researchers and students.
“There was an unmet need in academia, that was overwhelming and not
appreciated because they didn’t know what they could get,” Wishart
said.
The open-source toolkits cover the full concept of chip development,
from conceptualization to delivery of parts. Some universities may
have deals with chip factories, but students at the undergraduate,
master’s and PhD programs still have poor awareness of chip
fabrication.
----- End forwarded message -----
I have a DEC PDP Straight-8 in very poor condition. The paint behind the panel glass has mostly flecked off, the glass is broken and it is missing some switch covers/toggles. The plexiglass covers were also destroyed during shipment. The seller very carefully built a wooden crate and pallet to protect the machine during transport, but United Cargo laid the whole wooden crate on its side!! >(
Does anyone know of any front panel collector who has a Straight-8 front panel that they might be willing to sell? I’d love to restore this machine. I’ve been looking for local plexiglass manufacturers but none of them answer my email when I show pictures of the project. I guess they don’t need the business.
Okay,
The issue I don’t understand, I guess a matter of not understanding Linux internals, is why does “the kernel” require explicit DECnet support?
I built DECnet-DOS without any cooperation from Microsoft. Or PathWorks for Windows 95 was built on top of published APIs.
Why does a modern OS need stuff built in?
Dave.
Sent from Mail for Windows
Hello Everyone,
I have just come across around 900 blank punch cards, they are plastic about 5 thou in thickness.
Would they be of interest to anyone on the list, they in the UK in Lancashire, but might be expensive to post as they are heavy (430 grams per 100)?
Cost a few GBP for a beer and postage costs, if interested please contact off list mike_t_norris(a)hotmail.com.
Regards Mike Norris
I've done this several different ways in the past, depending on your take of
"Cell phone".
For the phone that is probably in your pocket right now I've used one of
those bluetooth bridges that looks like a bluetooth handsfree device to the
phone but on your side you get a 48/90v POTS RJ11 for a regular phone. You
can attach a modem to them but some of those adapters do not emit a dial
tone.
These older adapters have major problems regarding audio quality and noise
cancellation. I could not relaibly make it hold a connection above 300bps.
Even 110bps had spurious corruption from time to time so barely enough for a
teletype connection and over an acoustic coupler it was not a lot better by
using one of those hipster handsets that plugged into the headphone jack on
phones, when a headphone jack was still a thing......That feels weird to
even say.
I do have a data kit for motorola's line of bag and car phones but that
requires the discontinued AMPS service. Same goes for the data kit for my
Tandy rebranded Nokia portable telephone which has basically an audio
breakout so you can attach an acoustic coupler. Radio Shack's catalog made
this adapter seem WAY cooler than it really was but I guess if you were
high-rollin' with a Tandy portable that was one way to dial into the office.
On the other hand I've also done data calls over an MSAT phone. A Mitsubishi
OmniQuest ST251 if you plug a terminal into the serial port responds to
hayes AT commands and emulates a 1200bps modem but the cal was very, very
expensive as it switches the radio specifically into a data-only mode.
If we're talking satellite phones that fot in your pocket I've logged into
Slashnet over a Globalstar GSP-1600 while camping which also appears as a
Hayes modem but under Windows you get an extra-special modem definition
driver that lets you engage speeds up to a blazing fast 9600bps.
-John
>Date: Wed, 10 Aug 2022 23:53:34 -0600
>From: Grant Taylor <cctalk(a)gtaylor.tnetconsulting.net>
>Subject: [cctalk] Cell phone as a dial up modem.
>To: cctalk <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org>
>Message-ID:
> <9cdbf98f-21ff-77f9-2676-2f5e73370913(a)spamtrap.tnetconsulting.net>
>Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8; format=flowed
>
>Does anyone know if it's possible, or -- better -- have experience using
>a cell phone as a dial up modem?
>
>I'm wondering about doing something as an alternative to a traditional
>POTS modem connected to a VoIP ATA. I'd think that treating the phone
>as a traditional modem with venerable Hayes AT commands might be more
>reliable than trying to do dial up connections across VoIP.
>
>It's been *YEARS* since I've tried to connect a modem to a serial port
>on a PC, universal or otherwise.
>
>Does anyone have any experience with or thoughts about doing this?
>
>--
>Grant. . . .
>unix || die
45 years for the TRS-80. My! Where has the time gone? The “Trash-80” was
one of the earliest micro-computers in my home. Radio Shack helped create
the ‘PC’ industry, the consumer version anyways, fueling what is now our
hobby.
Happy computing.
Murray 🙂
Replying to myself...Read manual...terminal does not talk to modems at
2400b, had to step down to 300b, worked.
On Fri, Aug 12, 2022, 2:25 PM Bill Degnan <billdegnan(a)gmail.com> wrote:
> I have an old terminal without a CTS line. If I hook up my laptop running
> Teraterm 2400,7N1 to the terminal and use a null modem cable I can type
> characters in the laptop and they appear on the terminal and if I type
> characters in the terminal they appear on the laptop.
>
> If I attach an ESP82660 WIfi modem to the laptop running teraterm I can
> connect, etc to use the WIFI - i.e. connect to a telnet service (ATDT
> bbs.fozztexx.com or towel.blinkenlights.nl).
>
> If I attach the same ESP82660 to the terminal, the ESP transmits to the
> terminal fine (to show the initial connection screen) but I when I type
> characters (such as ATZ) they do not appear on the display and I thus
> believe do not transmit, thus no echo back from the ESP. SO, there is
> something in the config of the ESP that is not happy. I have the terminal
> and laptop set for 2400,7N1.
>
> The pins of the terminal are
> 1 - ground
> 2 - transmitted data
> 3. - receive data
> 4 - rts
> 7 signal ground
> 8 data carrier detector
> 11 reverse channel transmit data
> 12 reverse channel receive data
> 18 read only data
> 20 data terminal ready.
>
> I am working on this, but any tips would be appreciated. Do I need Mark
> or Space parity?
>
> Bill
>
Does anyone know if it's possible, or -- better -- have experience using
a cell phone as a dial up modem?
I'm wondering about doing something as an alternative to a traditional
POTS modem connected to a VoIP ATA. I'd think that treating the phone
as a traditional modem with venerable Hayes AT commands might be more
reliable than trying to do dial up connections across VoIP.
It's been *YEARS* since I've tried to connect a modem to a serial port
on a PC, universal or otherwise.
Does anyone have any experience with or thoughts about doing this?
--
Grant. . . .
unix || die
I have a recently recapped SE/30, and I have installed a SCSI2SD (v5.0a) inside it. I don't have a (working) CD drive, and the floppy drive is broken, so I configured SCSI device 3 to be a CD-ROM drive, and put the System 7.5.3 installer inside it, along with a copy of the patched "HD SC Setup" utility, so I can format the other SCSI devices, which are configured as 2GB hard disks.
Booting from the "CD" works fine. Formatting the disks works fine.
I cannot get the System 7.5.3 installer to complete. After copying a few files, it complains that an error occurred, and then aborts.
Additionally, if I attempt to copy the contents of the "CD" to a hard disk, after copying a few files, I get an error that says a "disk error" occurred. It's not the same file every time, it copies a random number of files successfully before erroring.
I've have also had a few random bomb errors, although these do not happen reliably and I haven't managed to come up with a way of causing them on demand. They may have stopped after I swapped the RAM, although that is speculation.
Things that I have tried:
* Playing with the "SCSI Host", "SCSI Selection Delay", "Enable Parity", "Respond to short SCSI selection pulses" settings on the SCSI2SD. No combination seems to make any noticeable difference.
* Swapping out the RAM on the SE/30. I initially thought the RAM was bad, but I replaced it with a different set and the symptoms are exactly the same.
* Removing the case back, in case something was overheating inside.
* Replacing the microSD card with a different one.
None of these have altered the symptoms at all, and I'm running out of ideas. Any suggestions would be very welcome.
David
