[HN Gopher] Second IC - Homemade 1000 transistor array chip (2021)
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Second IC - Homemade 1000 transistor array chip (2021)
Author : danboarder
Score : 208 points
Date : 2023-04-24 07:20 UTC (15 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (sam.zeloof.xyz)
(TXT) w3m dump (sam.zeloof.xyz)
| dang wrote:
| Related:
|
| _A home-made lithographically-fabricated integrated circuit
| (2018)_ - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28263714 - Aug
| 2021 (13 comments)
|
| _Second IC_ - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28176255 -
| Aug 2021 (79 comments)
|
| _Homemade IC (2018)_ -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21239145 - Oct 2019 (40
| comments)
|
| _Home Chip Fab_ - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20657398
| - Aug 2019 (131 comments)
|
| _A home-made lithographically-fabricated integrated circuit_ -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16955549 - April 2018 (116
| comments)
| azubinski wrote:
| This kind of real passion deserves much more representation in
| the news.
|
| May Atomic Semi be fine. May the God of Engineering bless them.
| badcc wrote:
| And now, a couple years later, he's partnered with microprocessor
| legend Jim Keller to start Atomic Semi..
| https://twitter.com/szeloof/status/1636174775310745601
| WestCoastJustin wrote:
| I didn't make the connection until now, but Jim Keller was on
| the Lex Fridman podcast twice [1, 2] and it was awesome. In
| terms of founders this is pretty great team.
|
| [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nb2tebYAaOA
|
| [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4hL5Om4IJ4
| marcodiego wrote:
| I don't know how much commercial value his projects may have, but
| I really think they could be used in education. It very is rare
| for students (even in developed countries I think) to be able to
| develop and test their own chips.
|
| Having a simple, practical, affordable "chip making" kit that any
| one could have access would be a boost for students all over the
| world.
| comboy wrote:
| I don't think any of these adjectives applies.
| xor99 wrote:
| Loved reading his blog over the years. Another good resource in
| this area is the zero to asic course:
|
| https://zerotoasiccourse.com/
| polalavik wrote:
| Been following Matt Venn of zero to asic for a while. Hes got a
| great youtube channel as well. Looking forwards for when they
| can support designs a couple order of magnitudes larger. I
| really want to design an audio spectrum based OFDM modem
| 802.11a-ish. Might be too big of a design for the foreseeable
| future tho.
| veltas wrote:
| This is really fantastic work and there definitely needs to be a
| hacker microchip community. I love the idea of one day having a
| simplistic processor chip someone made in their garage.
| junon wrote:
| This is _so incredibly cool_. I 've always wondered if this were
| possible and it tickles me to see it done - starting in high
| school, no doubt.
| jebarker wrote:
| I love the audacity of this as a hobby project. It makes me
| wonder what other audacious hobby ideas would be dismissed by
| almost everyone but are actually achievable by a suitably
| motivated individual.
| mhh__ wrote:
| Achievable if someone bankrolls you sure
| stevenjgarner wrote:
| What about making everything else (all the tools) that Sam uses
| to make the silicon chips? How would you make one of those
| Nikon projectors? The test equipment? The chemicals? Like some
| comprehensive post apocalyptic bootstrap.
| sho_hn wrote:
| You might like this: https://www.thomasthwaites.com/the-
| toaster-project/
| markus_zhang wrote:
| Have been thinking about making an authentic copy of V2 rocket
| since like 20...
| jacquesm wrote:
| I know a guy that made a ramjet, so that's definitely doable.
| jebarker wrote:
| There's a whole sub-genre here of projects that would be
| (wisely) dismissed because they would land you in jail rather
| than their technical difficulty I suppose. I recall recently
| seeing a rocketry hobbyist realize their landing guidance
| tech is essentially the same as precision missile guidance
| and best not to make open source.
|
| EDIT: I just remembered, it was Mark Rober's egg drop from
| space [1]
|
| [1] https://youtu.be/BYVZh5kqaFg
| [deleted]
| nickpinkston wrote:
| Just don't launch it at authentic targets... :D
| varispeed wrote:
| > but are actually achievable by a suitably motivated _and
| minted_ individual.
|
| Unfortunately, in my country something like this is impossible
| for most people, simply because they don't have space and money
| to do anything.
|
| I had some many projects in mind when I was younger, but my
| parents were poor and I had a tiny room. We had no garage, no
| garden. I still saved money to buy soldering iron and
| electronic components to experiment with, but I was damaging
| them at such a rate I spent all my savings on components and
| had to abandon this for many years.
|
| I still cannot afford to rent a place where I could do
| something that interests me and I have a good job. Things also
| have become much more expensive, so it takes forever. Like I
| can only afford to order one iteration of project per month and
| it's frustrating I have so many ideas I just don't have
| anywhere to make them.
|
| I came up with a system, so that I can store everything in
| boxes and have stacks of them from the floor to ceiling and a
| spreadsheet where everything is located, but it takes so much
| time to take something from the bottom or when I put
| breadboards in and accidentally disconnect something.
|
| Sometimes I get so depressed by this I can't even do anything
| for weeks.
| 908B64B197 wrote:
| > Unfortunately, in my country something like this is
| impossible for most people, simply because they don't have
| space and money to do anything.
|
| Why is the country so unproductive?
| pixelpoet wrote:
| That Industry vs Sam's garage chart is hilarious :D Obligatory
| XKCD: https://xkcd.com/605/
| jacquesm wrote:
| Yes, at this rate he'll outrun TSMC in a couple of years.
| jacquesm wrote:
| Amazing work. Would be great to see more of the gear used and the
| processes themselves and how feasible it is to reproduce this.
| I'd absolutely love to be able to do for instance a homebrew 6502
| or so. But I fear the gear costs will be astronomical.
|
| Check the 'general high vacuum' page linked on the left there as
| well.
| teabee89 wrote:
| Archived version: https://archive.is/SuAf2
| simultsop wrote:
| Sam's garage looks like a billion dollar lab, pretty affordable
| for a DIY.
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