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High School Dropout, Self-Taught Chip Designer

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the games-people-play dept.

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."

14 of 816 comments (clear)

  1. No Reg Required... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    The soul-saver strikes again (Karma Free, for your pleasure):

    Reg Free Link

  2. Maybe by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Maybe in 20 years she can design a P75. That will show those corparte giants who is boss.

  3. don't mod up :( by ack154 · · Score: 5, Funny

    damnit - i really did mean to post as AC ...

  4. A girl-geek and slashdot by Hoi+Polloi · · Score: 5, Funny

    Start rolling out the "She is hot" and "I'd like her to play with my joystick" comments.

    One more thing, can Slashdot's editors please stop whining about NYT's registration? To read their news for free just for filling in some info seems like a generous trade.

    --
    It is by the juice of the coffee bean that thoughts acquire speed, the teeth acquire stains. The stains become a warning
  5. Re:There will always been room for the underdog by acomj · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

  6. Well by paranode · · Score: 5, Funny

    She looks like a conniving elf in the picture. So in Slashdot terms, yes she's hot.

  7. impossible? by i41Overlord · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "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.

    1. Re:impossible? by Grishnakh · · Score: 5, Informative

      You haven't worked much with FPGAs, have you?

      FPGAs are programmed in Verilog or VHDL; it's not much different from programming a computer. All you need is a development board with the FPGA plugged in (the FPGA makers make eval boards specifically to support this), and a connection to your PC so you can download the compiled design into the FPGA.

      The problem with FPGAs is that they're very similar to SRAM, and when they lose power, they lose their programming. So they have to program themselves every time they power on, meaning you need a separate ROM chip on the board for it. Worse, because of this and because of the sheer cost per chip of FPGAs, they aren't very good for designs with large production volumes (they are good for small volumes, though, because you don't have to get a custom chip made, which has a high initial cost). So, all you have to do is get your FPGA design converted to an ASIC; there's several companies that specialize in exactly this.

      Basically, all this girl had to do was do the actual HDL design at home, test and debug it on a prototype board, then when it was finished send it to a manufacturer to have them make ASICs in large volume from it. You don't need your own fabrication plant any more than you need your own photo developing lab to make photos.

    2. Re:impossible? by harrkev · · Score: 5, Insightful

      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.

      --
      "-1 Troll" is the apparently the same as "-1 I disagree with you."
    3. Re:impossible? by MagerValp · · Score: 5, Informative

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

      No, she did her own core, which is both smaller and faster than the free cores out there.

      > 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.

      The NTSC unit is SRAM based. The C64 uses transparent DRAM refresh during the VIC's half of every cycle. The PAL unit will use SDRAM.

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

      MAJOR headache.

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

      Yes, it took her years, and there are still timing glitches. It's amazingly compatible though.

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

      I believe this was fairly easy though.

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

      IIrc that's a small state machine and a matrix, nothing too hairy.

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

      That was done in software by Adrian Gonzalez. The NY Times article concentrated on Jeri herself, so I guess it's forgivable that they didn't mention that there was a software team as well (Adrian and Robin Harbron were the main programmers, plus me and Mark Seelye helped patch games).

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

      Nope, all Jeri.

      Those people doubting her hardware skills really shouldn't talk without checking facts, and if you think that designing things in VHDL is as simple as programming in C you need a clue. No, make that two. And for the record, it's designed with a mix of VHDL and schematic capture.

      --

      READY.
      #
  8. New York Times? by michael+path · · Score: 5, Funny

    [NYTimes. You know what that means]

    That they're just making shit up?

  9. Re:Forgot one key to success by Desert+Raven · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Actually, the one thing that's keeping her from raking in the really big bucks is also what's protecting her.

    She's doing the design as a contractor.

    It's the companies who are making and selling them that will have to take the big risk of lawsuit. By legal standards, she's just a hired gun.

  10. Finally someone I can relate too by jdjdac · · Score: 5, Insightful
    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!!

  11. Sexism by believekevin · · Score: 5, Insightful

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

    /. disappoints once again.