Those familiar with Linux, the freely available, open-source operating system developed by Linus Torvalds, another Finnish programmer, will not be shocked to learn that Paananen, in a nationally consistent fit of altruism, put Harmonium on the Internet for anyone to download, thus passing up a shot at becoming a billionaire.
Couldn't find Harmonium after 10 minutes of Googling... Does anyone know where it is and if it is still free?
A popular UK ZX Spectrum magazine used to have audio cassettes on the front cover (as CDs are today).
For one issue (the first, I think), they put a 45rpm flexible record on the front cover. You played it on your record player into the Spectrum and it loaded as normal. It had the benefit that you could just put the needle on the track of the program that you wanted to play for instant random access - way better than tape unless your record jumped.
I can't be sure (it's over 20 years ago), but I think it was on 'Your Sinclair' or 'Crash' magazine.
Haiku is basically rebilding BeOS from scratch open-source style, so getting one of the fundamental building blocks working in such a way that it allows non-GUI apps to run is a great achievement.
The status page has more details on the overall system progress. When I first visited that page, I though that it would take forever to finish. I looked again just now and got a most optimistic feeling.
Once in a while, a very long while, a genetic mutation comes along and makes the first step towards a new species.
This hermaphrodite lobster may have been able to mate with itself and make lots more 2-tone lobsters. From the photo in the article, it looks like it was caught alive. It would be interesting to see what would happen if it is given the chance to breed with itself.
It would also be interesting to see if the blue half tastes different to the other half!
FPGA = Field Programmable Gate Array (a sea of logic gates in a chip that can be set up any way you like).
VHDL = VHSIC Hardware Description Language (language used to describe how the gates are set up)
VHSIC = Very High Speed Integrated Circuits
I disagree with books not being any good - every so often, you'll want to do something that is possibly wierd and books can help. If you really hate books, you can always try news://comp.lang.vhdl. The people on that forum are very good and you will get an answer.
To clarify "advanced" some more: the VHDL language is quite flexible but there is a big difference between writing code that you will synthesise and code that you will not:
With non-synthesisable code, you can do whatever the hell you like. Use 'wait' statements, use multipliers and variables all over the place. In fact, using variables is a good thing for fast simulations.
For synthesisable code, you should follow a moderately strict set of rules that limit the scope of the language (i.e. you cannot synthesise a statement like 'wait 20 ns'). The European Space Agency's guidelines are a good read here (see my other post).
If your synthesisable VHDL code is clean and free from "advanced" things as the pervious poster says, you won't have trouble with Xilinx tools. Enumerated types are fine, too - it's how I do all my state machines.
As mentioned above, Peter J. Ashenden's book (now in its second edition) is the best I have found in over 6 years. It covers basics and advanced topics very well. Also by Ashenden is a book called "The VHDL Cookbook", available from http://tech-www.informatik.uni-hamburg.de/vhdl/
The Xilinx WebPack is a great place to start - you get everything you need to take you from text-edited files to a binary image on one CD (or download from here: http://support.xilinx.com/support/download.htm). It even comes with a (very) cut-down version of Mentor Graphics' ModelSim and Xilinx's own synthesis tool, XST.
Speaking of text editors, (X)Emacs has a great VHDL mode that can beautify your code, create makefiles and manage your projects, available here:http://opensource.ethz.ch/emacs/vhdl-mode.htm l.
I know a lot about IC manufacture, but I keep reading articles like this one in the vain hope that one will go into enough detail to answer this:
I've got a sample 100mm wafer on my desk with several hunderd ICs of some sort arranged in a grid on it. The ICs are only 4mm x 4mm, but the distance between them is about 0.1mm.
What sort of cutting device is used to chop these 4x4 squares out of the die without messing up the adjacent ones?
This wafer isn't special in any way and I'm sure other wafers would have a similarly small gap because it's a waste of space not to.
Slashdot Mirror
Couldn't find Harmonium after 10 minutes of Googling... Does anyone know where it is and if it is still free?
For one issue (the first, I think), they put a 45rpm flexible record on the front cover. You played it on your record player into the Spectrum and it loaded as normal. It had the benefit that you could just put the needle on the track of the program that you wanted to play for instant random access - way better than tape unless your record jumped.
I can't be sure (it's over 20 years ago), but I think it was on 'Your Sinclair' or 'Crash' magazine.
The status page has more details on the overall system progress. When I first visited that page, I though that it would take forever to finish. I looked again just now and got a most optimistic feeling.
Once in a while, a very long while, a genetic mutation comes along and makes the first step towards a new species.
This hermaphrodite lobster may have been able to mate with itself and make lots more 2-tone lobsters. From the photo in the article, it looks like it was caught alive. It would be interesting to see what would happen if it is given the chance to breed with itself.
It would also be interesting to see if the blue half tastes different to the other half!
At between 9 and 10 patents per day, does anyone know if IBM gets a bulk discount on its fees?
FPGA = Field Programmable Gate Array (a sea of logic gates in a chip that can be set up any way you like).
VHDL = VHSIC Hardware Description Language (language used to describe how the gates are set up)
VHSIC = Very High Speed Integrated Circuits
To clarify "advanced" some more: the VHDL language is quite flexible but there is a big difference between writing code that you will synthesise and code that you will not:
If your synthesisable VHDL code is clean and free from "advanced" things as the pervious poster says, you won't have trouble with Xilinx tools. Enumerated types are fine, too - it's how I do all my state machines.
Disclaimer: I don't work for Xilinx (or Altera).
An interesting (and excellent) link on VHDL coding standards in a working environment is also available off that page: the European Space Agency's VHDL coding standard (available in PostScript format here http://tech-www.informatik.uni-hamburg.de/vhdl/doc /style_guide/ModelGuide.ps.gz).
The Xilinx WebPack is a great place to start - you get everything you need to take you from text-edited files to a binary image on one CD (or download from here: http://support.xilinx.com/support/download.htm). It even comes with a (very) cut-down version of Mentor Graphics' ModelSim and Xilinx's own synthesis tool, XST.
If you use Altera chips, they have a similar offering, called Quartus II Web Edition (http://www.altera.com/products/software/products/ quartus2web/sof-quarwebmain.html)
Speaking of text editors, (X)Emacs has a great VHDL mode that can beautify your code, create makefiles and manage your projects, available here:http://opensource.ethz.ch/emacs/vhdl-mode.htm l.
Who will get rid of the bugs in the robots' software?
I prefer the results from "rubbish search".
Do you have (or know of) any photos of this tool?
I've got a sample 100mm wafer on my desk with several hunderd ICs of some sort arranged in a grid on it. The ICs are only 4mm x 4mm, but the distance between them is about 0.1mm.
What sort of cutting device is used to chop these 4x4 squares out of the die without messing up the adjacent ones?
This wafer isn't special in any way and I'm sure other wafers would have a similarly small gap because it's a waste of space not to.
A Dremel? A frickin' laser beam? Anyone?
Fix it up with glue and paste.
Fancy a server?
Right, cross your eyes while keeping them focussed on the pictures. Some of them can be viewed stereoscopically. Bleh, yak! (passes out)