High School Dropout, Self-Taught Chip Designer

circletimessquare writes "The QVC television shopping network has recently found a hit in its product the C64, which emulates the classic Commodore 64 in a small form factor, a joystick. But the story of the designer of the product is more interesting than the product. Meet Jeri Ellsworth [NYTimes. You know what that means], whose life story emulates the golden age of garage-based computer design. She is proof that the passion of the homebrew electronic hobbyist is still a viable force in an age when well-funded and well-staffed corporate design teams dominate chip design."

Comments

Re:There will always been room for the underdog

[acomj]

Cars are a bad metaphore. Mostly made by large comglomerates.

Lexus and Scion are made by Toyota.
Saturn made be General Motors,
Geo, was GM rebrand of cars made by Toyota I beleive
Subaru - Fuju Heavy Industries
Kia is from Huyndi (large comglomerate.)

But your right, software/computers are still places were an individual can make it with hard work and good design.

Also she is working for a NJ toy manufacturer not out on her own.

impossible?

[i41Overlord]

"She is NOT a self-taught CHIP DESIGNER. She is a self-taught FPGA programmer. There is a world of difference, the former is impossible, the latter is trivial."

Impossible? What about the guys who invented the first chips? Did they go to some class that taught how to build chips which will be invented in the future?

You can buy the same books that they have at schools. You can learn the same things on your own that you'd learn in schools. Some people (such as myself) are tinkerers, and we learn better by experimenting on our own than we do sitting in a classroom.

I find it funny that I've also heard people saying you need to go to school to be a programmer or work in the computer industry. Most of us geeks know that's also false.

Re:impossible?

[harrkev]

The Xilinx Spartan family has some very nice FPGAs clocking in at well under $10 right now. So, for small low-speed things like this, they are perfect!

And as far as the "all this girl had to do" line, no way. All she had to do was:

1) Implement a 6502 processor. There is a free core or two floating around, which she likely used. Still not exactly trivial, though.

2) Reverse-engineer and implement the DRAM circuitry. The design does not use DRAM, but you still need to emulate certain portions of the hardware for timing reasons. When DRAM refreshes, the processor has to snooze.

3) Reverse-engineer and implement the SID sound chip. Fairly major headache.

4) Reverse-engineer and implement the video circuitry. Major headache. This system even had hardware sprites.

5) Reverse-engineer and implement the different hardware ports.

6) Include a bridge that would allow a PC keyboard to emulate a C64 keyboard.

7) Emulate a cassette drive and load it with warez.

8) Implement the analog bits of the video and sound circuitry. Maybe somebody else did this.

In short, I am impressed.

I have been through an ASIC tape-out. It costs in the neighborhood of $100K. MUCH cheaper to go with a cheap FPGA and serial-EEPROM for stuff like this. Once you get well over 10,000 units shipped, it is time to start looking at an ASIC. Until then, a cheap FPGA is probably your best bet.

Finally someone I can relate too

[jdjdac]

Being a graduating electrical engineer, ham radio operator, and of the female persuasion....IT IS ABOUT FREAKING TIME I've had someone to truly look up to in terms of technical skill and passion. Her life story is very similar to how I grew up and how I experimented with electronics other 'boys toys.' I always felt like an outcast for enjoying tinkering, be it with trebuchets or radios.

It really makes you question your role in society...especially when it seems that women are portrayed like idiots or dumb blondes in the media. Or that all I should care about is makeup, clothes, and hair (trust me I'm not that obsessed - just ask my husband). Sometimes even today I ask myself "what they hell am I doing?" "Why didn't I do elementary ed like every girl I know?" It is still something I struggle with even today.

I always wished I could have had another woman to look up and admire for their technical achievements. I almost never thought it would happen in my lifetime. Congratulations to her on her long list of achievements, and hopefully she can encourage another generation of woman to get into tech....especially engineering!!

Sexism

[believekevin]

I'm halfway through the responses and haven't yet encountered a single comment about the greatness of this project!

/. disappoints once again.