Pure Silicon Demo Coding: No CPU, No Memory, Just 4k Gates

(a1k0n.net)

183 points | by a1k0n 4 hours ago ago

15 comments

  • xphos 2 hours ago ago

    As a computer science guy who interlops in computer engineering i really want to find time to build something cool like this and tapeout. The retro architectures for rendering are simple but fun! I love the project

    • Neywiny 2 hours ago ago

      I recommend getting started like the author did: simulation first, then FPGA. Honestly FPGA will take you very far. I always get a kick out of being able to design my own SoC. "Hmmm I need 9 separate I2C ports... Ok, copy block, paste paste paste..." Or if you have an operation in software that's taking forever you can write an accelerator for it

    • oofbey 2 hours ago ago

      It’s amazing and wonderful to see the Internet support these tiny cliques of interest. Having everybody connected leads to homogenization of culture in some ways, but it also supports these couple dozen (?) people around the world finding each other for this amazing little competition.

      • anonymous908213 30 minutes ago ago

           Having everybody connected leads to homogenization of culture in some ways
        
        The internet may hypothetically homogenize culture relative to a society that does not have any kind of mass communication at all, but relative to the world it was actually introduced into, the internet has completely balkanised the culture. Prior to the internet, we had television, cinema, literature, radio, and newspapers, which were all centralised and controlled enough that they created a shared monoculture in nations. A signifant portion of a country's population would watch, read, and listen to the same media. The internet bucked that trend, allowing all kinds of new subcultures to pop up and to more easily cross national boundaries.
  • glimshe 2 hours ago ago

    Reminds me of college: "Hardware and Software are logically equivalent"

  • BoredPositron 11 minutes ago ago

    Reminds me of the time we repaired old pinball machines in trade school. Good times.

  • startupsfail an hour ago ago

    Wow, I'm looking at current "Open Shuttles", a license to use 4KB of SRAM in the project is $2500. But it comes with Wishbone Bus interface!

    > 1024x32 Commercial SRAM > CF_SRAM_1024x32 > Commercial SRAM: 1024 words x > 32 bits (4KB) with Wishbone Bus interface > Area: 0.17mm² > GPIOs: 0 > License: Commercial - $2500 per project

  • openinfrared 2 hours ago ago

    Really cool!

  • Dwedit 2 hours ago ago

    If you have registers, it's not "no memory".

    • hackernudes 2 hours ago ago

      If you have flip flops, it's not "no memory".

      If you have a ROM, it's not "no memory".

      Needlessly pedantic!

      I thought this was pretty cool but the first video didn't play. All this write up and I really just want to see the damn demo in action first! (Edit: reloaded the page and it worked. I still would like to see it on rela hardware!)

      • jayd16 44 minutes ago ago

        I don't know. Analog signal processing is clearly less memory than a register, no? So a line exists somewhere and I think it's way before no RAM.

        • ErroneousBosh 41 minutes ago ago

          > Analog signal processing is clearly less memory than a register, no?

          Bucket-brigade delay lines?

          • jayd16 36 minutes ago ago

            I'm not saying every analog signal processor is surely memory free, simply that you can imagine one that is.

            But I'm not really familiar with what that is.

      • a1k0n 2 hours ago ago

        Ah that's what I get for self hosting. What browser?

        https://youtu.be/7xPS-0nydms