• Thank you Jaromir !

    01/28/2020 at 23:36 • 2 comments

    I received these yummies thanks to @jaromir.sukuba and it's only a tiny, tiny small part of the treasures he sent me !

    Is it worrying that I now know half of these ridiculously obsolete parts ?

    anyway I have enough of these to build a clock.

    or two, maybe.

    or a UART.

    Damnit...

  • The damages of "Intellectual Property"

    01/04/2020 at 14:06 • 1 comment

    Hi @Drew Fustini  :)

    Here is something to integrate in your next slides about Free/Open Hardware designs :

    From Apple Reunites With iPhone Graphics Chip Partner To License Technology (theverge.com)

    Apple will once again license technology from Imagination Technologies, the chip designer that used to provide graphics processors for the iPhone and iPad, the UK-based company announced today. The Verge reports: In a short statement posted on its website, Imagination said that it had entered into a multiyear license agreement with Apple, under which the Cupertino, California-based firm will have access to "a wider range of Imagination's intellectual property in exchange for license fees." Apple announced its split from Imagination back in April 2017 when it said that it would start designing its own graphics chips, and it would stop licensing the company's technology within two years. After the split was announced, Imagination expressed skepticism that Apple could design its own chips "without violating Imagination's patents, intellectual property, and confidential information." 

    Did you read that last line right ?

    So yes : using proprietary designs is a kiss of death.

    You start by using some "IP cores" then you depend on them. When you want to switch to something else that you control 100%, you're already too dependent and too compromised by external information and NDAs. You get sued for doing your own stuff (or threatened) and you are forced back into the flock.

  • Hackers in Paris

    08/22/2019 at 20:02 • 2 comments

    Today I had the incredible pleasure to welcome @Artem Kashkanov  and his friend Roman !

    They visited my workshop with their wives and we talked a lot about electronics, Russia, Russian electronics ;-)

    We've been waiting for so long to meet and at last, we did ! Hopefully, we'll meet again, and who knows who else will be there too ? @Dr. Cockroach  ? @Morning.Star ? @Drew Fustini  ?...

    Thanks again everybody !