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LibreSOC and TinyTapeout pictures @FSiC2024
06/23/2024 at 01:36 • 6 commentsWe talk a lot about architectures and semiconductors.
At the FSiC2024 conference in Paris, I saw real integrated circuits and took pictures, including TinyTapeout chips and the LibreSOC samples/prototypes.
I have uploaded some of them on Wikipedia to contribute to the Libre-SOC page.
And here Thorsten showing some TT samples in bare die and QFN package.
And one board demonstrated by @matt venn !
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More operator symbols
11/24/2023 at 14:51 • 0 commentsTo say that I am frustrated by the vocabulary of some common languages is an understatement. JavaScript introduced the ">>>" symbol for the arithmetic (sign-preserving) shift but we're still far from satisfaction.
The Pascal family of languages don't bother with such details because operators use all-letters operators : sll, shl... But the C-like syntax is preferred today so I need to be creative.
Carry-related operations are traditionally absent, which is a shame. So let's skip directly to the rotations : there is no direct symbol for this, but I have long wanted to modify the shift symbols:
<<@ rotate left >>@ rotate right
Or maybe a shorter version:
<@ rotate left @> rotate right
which is less effort than having to analyse the syntax tree and look for a compound operation (OR of two SHIFTs with the same arguments and the shift amounts sum up to 32 or 64).
Now there is an even trickier symbol to choose : I need UMIN, UMAX, SMIN and SMAX (unsigned and signed minimum and maximum) The < and > symbols will be used but how to discern between signed and non signed operations ?
<? MIN ?> MAX
The Dollar symbol looks like a S so
<$ SMIN $> SMAX
could do the trick.
Any advice or prior art is welcome !
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Addendum ABCE
09/26/2023 at 06:43 • 0 commentsI have covered permutations of control signals in binary trees many years ago, I have even published 2 articles:
And I recently became aware that I am only a rediscoverer, as there are 2 patents:
https://patents.google.com/patent/US5243599A/en by IBM, expired in 2011
"Tree-type multiplexers and methods for configuring the same"
Figure 6 is clearly a balanced tree (32 leaves, 1,7,7,8,8 configuration)
https://patents.google.com/patent/US20120194250 AMD, seems identical but expires in 2031 ???
I have not been able to understand the difference between the two patents but this would explain why the technique has not appeared on my radar before : who wants to walk on IBM's toes ? However its validity is gone since a dozen years now so why restrain ourselves ?
Addendum to the addendum :
https://arxiv.org/abs/2405.16938
https://arxiv.org/abs/2405.16968
The subject is still alive !
Hey buddy, thanks for another :-) #Scrap Tools
Not long to go now, soon be in my new workshop, yay! :-D