Post AYoFfvU07UWL51ODK4 by amiloradovsky@stereophonic.space
(DIR) More posts by amiloradovsky@stereophonic.space
(DIR) Post #AYgHCJVu9NdoQSUXj6 by amiloradovsky@stereophonic.space
2023-08-13T07:24:45.971390Z
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I have impression that there is a big misconception among the enthusiasts about what FPGAs are and are forthey’re very expensive, about as much as a big real computing cluster (not one made of RPis)you can put a CPU in them, even several CPUs with the peripherals, an entire MCU, but it’ll work at clock speeds of about 250 MHz max. not 4 GHzthis^ only makes sense in the process of developing an ASIC, not to be shipped as a complete solution – something as performant as a SBC but costing 100 times of thatit may be shipped as complete solution although only if it isn’t a CPU running a program but the program turned into RTL and loaded into the #FPGA – still very expensive, only makes sense if the market for this kind of thing is too small to launch an they aren’t autonomous, the FPGA has to be programmed every time it powers up, there may be flash memory somewhere on the (evaluation/development/mother-) board but it’s not inside of the FPGA and is an extra hassle to programyou can also connect several of the chips into one big FPGA but the interfaces are all proprietary and are only used by the vendor to make the development boards with higher specsthe FPGA doesn’t drive the buses connected to it directly with it’s internal signals – there are hard transceivers included into the FPGA that do it – slow parallel bus for the user logic on one end and fast sequential differential bus on the other, with all the stuff needed for the (de)serialization being in the hard partthe transceivers may be for wired differential buses or radio frequency (de)modulators, a.k.a. SDR – the latter are not only expensive but you can’t even buy them with the money unless you’re a military contractorthe chips and boards with very low specs can be bought by anyone, and cost not too much, but you wouldn’t be able to either put a CPU in them or interact with the wireless devices other than analog radios and TVs – not anything transmitting at 2.4 GHz like a microwave ovencomplaining about the tools being proprietary is almost the same thing as complaining about the software for the mainframes in the ‘70s – nobody but employees of specialized companies and research labs could get access to such a piece of h/wwhat everyone can do is to write and debug the RTL on simulators, so that somebody who has the access to the tools could synthesize it, catch a few more bugs, and submit a patch fixing them upstream (or not do it, if they’re freeloaders) – all the same reasons apply as to FLOSS
(DIR) Post #AYgHfMNgZIBniVUuSO by amiloradovsky@stereophonic.space
2023-08-13T07:30:01.394362Z
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*launch an #ASIC
(DIR) Post #AYggjX8r029n6SeAoy by xameer@mathstodon.xyz
2023-08-13T11:18:29Z
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@amiloradovsky what is it that xlinx offer , that kianriscV cpu : arty A7 or polarfire don't?I ask as ve not used xlinxSidenote - I do understand, why synthesis tools are so expensive or dependence on the IP of bigtech if one is scaling or shipping in a rush, yet the question above remains . It ll also help me evaluating the procurement I ve done so far and in future
(DIR) Post #AYggjXyFuvH1fshDwO by amiloradovsky@stereophonic.space
2023-08-13T12:10:53.121908Z
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@xameer IDK, but depending on the model, for high-end it's just more gates (lookup tables) and probably higher clock rates -- compare the specs and pricese.g. PolarFire's highest MPF500T costs ~1k EUR -- still not 10k
(DIR) Post #AYghAiZMcVYmMd0dZw by xameer@mathstodon.xyz
2023-08-13T12:12:24Z
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@amiloradovsky so if I read you right, polarfire isn't absolutely useless where xlinx is being used?Als , just to throw a dart in the dark , can't the issue of more gates be handled somewhat gracefully, efficiently, maybe rationally with an FPGA cluster ?
(DIR) Post #AYghAjINv7ZYcG4aki by amiloradovsky@stereophonic.space
2023-08-13T12:15:47.744558Z
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@xameer I haven't compared all the models, but Xilinx and Altera are big brands, which by themselves cost something (just like Apple)still though you may have to resort to their chips if your design it too big to fit in top models from other vendors, otherwise indeed it's better to avoid them
(DIR) Post #AYghIsxzqZv6vYQSDw by xameer@mathstodon.xyz
2023-08-13T12:16:53Z
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@amiloradovsky oh I am just prototyping atm, I can can only wish about manufacturing
(DIR) Post #AYghPymsbWT50Ubmz2 by amiloradovsky@stereophonic.space
2023-08-13T12:18:34.238420Z
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@xameer what are you prototyping?
(DIR) Post #AYghhIX4RhyTATTKS0 by xameer@mathstodon.xyz
2023-08-13T12:19:38Z
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@amiloradovsky let me dm that to you in a mor composed manner . And more analysis in reference to our exchange today.
(DIR) Post #AYghhJBq08aHCuXszg by amiloradovsky@stereophonic.space
2023-08-13T12:21:40.853381Z
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@xameer OK, but don't expect me to respond soon, I'll be away from the computer for a while
(DIR) Post #AYhQ2EsHdXqJt6BpgW by hansfbaier@fosstodon.org
2023-08-13T20:28:35Z
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@amiloradovsky Open source tooling is making progress https://github.com/openxc7
(DIR) Post #AYhQYDJmxVVwKMImjA by amiloradovsky@stereophonic.space
2023-08-13T20:42:06.632536Z
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@hansfbaier that's a good news, though for now it only seems to contain a place-and-route tool (for topology) and examples
(DIR) Post #AYioc684DnZ1FOAEym by hansfbaier@fosstodon.org
2023-08-14T03:05:25Z
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@amiloradovsky The toolchain-installer is complete with yosys 0.17 for synthesis
(DIR) Post #AYoFfuYvXgroE0gdMW by xameer@mathstodon.xyz
2023-08-17T03:07:03Z
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@amiloradovsky I am checking , if I can share the community reviews on DM or publiclydue reference https://ethernitynet.com/cornerstones/fpga-smartnics-for-network-acceleration/
(DIR) Post #AYoFfvU07UWL51ODK4 by amiloradovsky@stereophonic.space
2023-08-17T03:45:22.954431Z
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@xameer I’m not a huge fan of screenshots, just quoted text works better for me, but anyway:I can understand the temptation to maximize the scope and bring in all the cool stuff, but in practice it has to be distilled to a bare minimum of functionality – only the most essential stuff should be included: MVP that isor more precisely the huge project has to be split into phases/rounds: bare minimum first, then a slightly large version, and so onas they say perfection is not when there is nothing to add but nothing to remove, so at each phase/round only the most essential functionality has to be addedyou could build a PERT diagram or a rough Gantt chartp.s. unless it’s a shitpost, the text should to be properly styled: no typos, spacing, proper names capitalized, abbreviations in all caps, and so on – somebody who isn’t already into this topic may not even recognize the words; generally the text should be made easier to read, not write, programs or not
(DIR) Post #AYrjBBrAlyeQz5MruS by xameer@mathstodon.xyz
2023-08-17T04:42:11Z
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@amiloradovsky noted with thanks. I was also having a similar realisation about my fascination with static typed , lazy eval, strict haskell.. esp as i liked physics in early days.So long as one can instantiate the type they write , they need not test separate proofs . It's close to , how in early physics, one need not memorize formulae, besides natural empirical proportions ( i d call that understanding the explanation, with diagrams) , rest you can derive on your own , practice it, till you need not recollect it. You are marked for your mathod , rather than just getting correct answers , in numericals.Significant difference or so, that physics approximated heavily, but here too we ve algebraic effects which are useful to the point of being inevitable in some cases.Also i checked here are the reviews https://mod.projectcatalyst.io/review/1001549
(DIR) Post #AYrjBCihYxT9f6PcLQ by amiloradovsky@stereophonic.space
2023-08-18T20:00:06.732585Z
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@xameer I’m not very interested in blockchains these days, even if they’re proof-of-stake and not an ecological disaster, there are still questionshow blockchains are even better than the conventional banking: looks like the exchanges suffer from all the same issues, so why even botherhow one blockchain/cryptocoin is compared to another – I have no preference of one over another just because I can’t even answer the former question to myself
(DIR) Post #AYtUy3gCqwLKok0Ci8 by xameer@mathstodon.xyz
2023-08-19T05:20:37Z
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@amiloradovsky I have questions as well and I am trying to ask and get answers , just about FP though. I had questions about elections and the way system works ( for one bigtech is dumping unsecure PE illegally into market , leading to a recssion) , but the answer there was dark comedy , to depressive for my taste
(DIR) Post #AYtUy4u4It1ec1UmxM by amiloradovsky@stereophonic.space
2023-08-19T16:30:01.445340Z
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@xameer and how do blockchains help alleviate the issues