[HN Gopher] 1/25-scale Cray C90 wristwatch
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1/25-scale Cray C90 wristwatch
Author : akkartik
Score : 365 points
Date : 2024-06-19 16:40 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.chrisfenton.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.chrisfenton.com)
| jcun4128 wrote:
| The round displays are so cool
|
| Uses an FPGA lol damn that's hardcore
| Neywiny wrote:
| FPGAs were an odd experience of learning for me. I started
| thinking they were hard to program. Then once I got halfway
| decent at simple things, I realized just how powerful they can
| be. So many things just run faster if not instantaneously if
| you optimize for FPGA. It's incredible. And with modern cheapy
| low end boards, I hope they get more popular in projects.
| jcun4128 wrote:
| It is on my list of things to learn/have one (Orange Crab). I
| just haven't had a specific use yet. I know they use them for
| video out/camera for example. One day... so many things to
| learn/need time.
| Neywiny wrote:
| The orange crab looks nifty. My recommendation is to start
| very very simple. I'm not sure how this board integrates
| with the tools with their DFU mode and all that, but
| hopefully it allows the same quick iteration as JTAG. I
| think the next time if any you feel like using a
| microcontroller, try using the FPGA instead.
| Foobar8568 wrote:
| FPGA is the only thing where I haven't seen any progress in
| my understanding after trying to get anywhere for hours and
| hours.
| Neywiny wrote:
| I get that. I think it took me a full semester in uni, and
| a summer internship, and maybe a few more months after
| that. It's hard to really break through. But once I did, it
| got a lot easier.
| fentonc wrote:
| FPGAs are particularly amazing for this sort of project where
| you would otherwise need a custom ASIC that could never be
| even remotely economical to build (see my 16-core Z80 laptop
| as another excellent example: http://www.chrisfenton.com/the-
| zedripper-part-1/). It lets you play 'fantasy computer
| architect.'
| m463 wrote:
| > [a picture of a cray c90 computer]
|
| > A 25:1 Replica of my wristwatch
|
| :)
| theideaofcoffee wrote:
| Will a future design include the external heat exchanger unit?
| Maybe belt attached? The SSD on the other wrist, perhaps? :)
|
| I love to see these projects keeping the legacy of these old,
| great machines alive, if not running some fraction of unicos, at
| least aesthetically.
| gaudystead wrote:
| I don't have anything to say, technical-wise, but this is absurd
| and I love it.
| dvh wrote:
| No upholstery?!
| jerlam wrote:
| I thought this was funny until the last picture, then I thought
| it was great.
| andrelaszlo wrote:
| Haha yeah, the "A 25:1 Replica of my wristwatch" image caption
| cracked me up.
| eichin wrote:
| reminds me of the thing in model railroading, where actual
| IRL rail equipment is referred to as "prototype" for the
| model
| jandrese wrote:
| > The display shows a free-running simulation of Jupiter and 63
| of its moons. For convenience, I just plot the X/Y coordinates of
| each moon in the ecliptic plane. The ephemerides come from the
| HORIZONS server that NASA operates, at a specified date and time.
| The J90 just dumps a new frame whenever the Teensy has pulled the
| previous one, so with a teensy (ha!) bit of calibration on the
| micro controller side, it would be pretty easy to have the frames
| dumped in 'real time', which, knowing the starting time and date,
| would allow you to not-at-all-easily infer the current time by
| looking at the positions of Jupiter's moons.
|
| Someone finally came up with a time system more difficult for
| people to use than Star Trek's stardates.
| Someone wrote:
| > Someone finally came up with a time system more difficult for
| people to use than Star Trek's stardates
|
| I think that's a reference to
| https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_longitude#Satelli...
| or a (late) attempt to win a longitude reward
| (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longitude_rewards)
| eschneider wrote:
| I dunno. For certain astronomy geeks, it's a completely
| intuitive clock.
| richie-guix wrote:
| > Someone finally came up with a time system more difficult for
| people to use than Star Trek's stardates.
|
| Woz had that figured out ages ago.
|
| https://www.timesticking.com/steve-wozniaks-nixie-watch/
| gravescale wrote:
| > But what is a Nixie Watch? How does it function? These are
| some questions worth exploring with this distinct and
| idiosyncratic wristwatch. So--let's continue!
|
| > ....
|
| > Without getting into the weeds too much, the watch harvests
| electricity from said battery; deploys that electricity
| through currents; then the currents are switched off-and-on
| at exact times via a circuit board--which governs the
| electrical currents.
|
| While this certainly isn't "in the weeds", it does rather
| feel that this is not even within visual range of any plant
| at all.
|
| At the risk of eating the Onion, though it's not _inaccurate_
| , it doesn't seem like a very useful description, to anyone,
| even if the reader has never encountered electricity. The
| juxtaposition of that sentence with the earlier airily
| unelaborated-upon "a Nixie tube is a cold cathode tube" is
| pure art.
| demondemidi wrote:
| His writing style cracks me up. What about battery life though?
| fentonc wrote:
| It's . . . not great.
| nabla9 wrote:
| This would be a great prop for time travel scifi movie.
|
| Protagonist travels to 1991 and tries to convince scientist to
| help him. When asked for a proof, shows Gray C90 Wristwatch. "Our
| real computers are different, but I show you this because it does
| not pollute the timeline."
| iancmceachern wrote:
| This is refreshing. A premise for a time travel movie that is
| both accurate in terms of its portrait of computers, and it
| doesn't present basic time travel "oopsies" .
| fentonc wrote:
| I'm definitely packing this with me if I ever time travel.
| julianeon wrote:
| My premise for a time travel movie is very simple.
|
| 1. Buy a book on probability. Work through the practice
| exercises.
|
| 2. Time travel back to a time before the laws of probability
| were invented or taken seriously. Pre-1600's would be a good
| guess.
|
| 3. Become a gambler.
|
| 4. With the riches that will soon be pouring into your pockets,
| acquire resources and transform history.
| justsomehnguy wrote:
| Travel to May 22, 2010.
|
| Buy two large pizzas, cheese and 'supreme'.
|
| Be earlier than that guy.
|
| Credits.
| ponector wrote:
| Gambling is not the way to get rich.
|
| To get really rich you need to aquire people, their time and
| productivity. Instead of probability you need means to get
| people's minds so with them you can conquer territories and
| establish kingdom to be really rich.
| maxwell wrote:
| It's always the accent that gives away time travellers.
|
| Only real possibilities to avoid
| exile/asylum/imprisonment/execution for most of history
| would seem to hinge on predicting celestial events and
| making gunpowder, as Twain observed.
| kqr wrote:
| The issue with getting rich gambling is not knowing the
| probability, it's getting other people to continue paying you
| when you win large amounts and/or consistently.
|
| Even in today's professional gambling establishments
| (financial markets) big winners are often cut off in the name
| of stability.
| Cthulhu_ wrote:
| If you know the exact results (like Biff in Back to the
| Future), winning things like lotteries or horse race
| results multiple times will draw attention.
|
| Actually, any kind of money hoarding - moreso than anyone
| else - will draw the attention. Which might be OK, of
| course, but if you make waves that are too big, you'll
| affect global policy and the course of (economic) history,
| and all your predictions may be off.
|
| But, getting significant but non-controlling stakes in
| various successful stocks might work. You'd be like Warren
| Buffet, who I consider to be rich, but otherwise anonymous.
| yard2010 wrote:
| In other words you end up in manure anyway.
| mnw21cam wrote:
| I actually loved the side-plot in "About Time" where the
| main character went back in time and changed something
| and then they had a different child and then had to undo
| their change.
| wbl wrote:
| Create life and casualty insurance!
| Karellen wrote:
| 3. Become a bookmaker/start a casino.
|
| It's like being a gambler, but you get to stack the odds in
| your favour, deliberately, tell people you've done so, and
| _have everyone be fine with that_. If you use any knowledge
| of future events to stack a few odds a little more in your
| favor, no-one 's going to know any different, and they'll
| attribute any weird variances in your income to the punters
| who all made poor bets, rather than to your mad odds-setting
| skills.
|
| If you're going to gamble, always be the house. Only a
| complete moron can lose money that way.
| technothrasher wrote:
| I used to have a system to play the instant lottery
| multiple times a day and make every single ticket a
| winner... I owned a liquor store that sold tickets. We made
| enough on lottery sales to cover our payroll completely.
| cess11 wrote:
| 5. Eventually get bludgeoned to death in a moist alleyway.
| maxwell wrote:
| Set where? Gambling was criminalized in the UK in 1541 and
| Europe's first legal gambling house didn't open until 1638.
|
| Maybe they learn roulette strategy and show up right after
| Pascal invented the roulette wheel while he was trying to
| produce a perpetual motion machine (which could play a role
| in the time machine's tech itself too, which could resemble a
| "grande roue," visually akin to a g-force centrifuge or
| particle accelerator).
| ad-astra wrote:
| Absolutely amazing work!
| resource_waste wrote:
| I am personally asking, because after decades of tech hobbies, I
| have a bit of a self awareness to 'fun':
|
| I wonder what the fun part was, to them.
|
| There is something rewarding about learning. There is something
| rewarding about completing things. There is something rewarding
| about showing other people.
|
| I have the issue that everything I make should be practical.
| Either net me profit so I can make lots of money. Or useful to
| society so I can reduce the world's pain and increase pleasure,
| maybe this is a selfish way to fame.
|
| I still get all 3 of those rewards I previously mentioned, but
| there is something different going on when I'm doing something
| for profit/others. Its a different feeling, not better/worse,
| just different. Better in some ways, worse in others.
| fentonc wrote:
| Author here! Most of my projects are kind of like this penny
| arcade comic (https://www.penny-
| arcade.com/comic/2011/06/13/the-hippothala...) - I saw where
| something was not, and said "No. This will not do." It's 2024
| and a supercomputer wrist watch is possible, so now it exists
| =)
| mkhnews wrote:
| liquid cooled ?
| fsckboy wrote:
| maybe if the designer was not resistant to proofing it
| swayvil wrote:
| That's so dang cool.
| surfingdino wrote:
| Does it run vim? :-)
| superposeur wrote:
| I love to imagine this kind of thing dug up by an alien
| civilization. That it displays the moons of Jupiter will be a fun
| puzzle and a source of wonder. "Obviously", they will say, "these
| people must have worshipped Jupiter as a god and used the
| position of its moons to keep time." But the pieces of the puzzle
| will never quite fit.
|
| Who knows, maybe the Antikythera mechanism or the pyramids were a
| similarly ludicrous prank?
| gravescale wrote:
| "Some people (X'Grn'k et al) say it was a device used for
| humorous purposes. However, we consider that the presence of
| sacred etched silicon devices rules this hypothethis out. While
| crudely worked in that time, and despite the abundance of raw
| material on the planet, such silicon was in short supply and
| was central to the nascent Guptian Church movement. In
| addition, records suggest that the "geo"politics of the time,
| somewhere between 1980 and 2050, had silicon artisanry in
| constant high military demand (see the F'llr'wq Metaversity
| analysis on use of Phonic Screen Devices in Central-West Asian
| planet-surface warfare between 1945 and 2045), and if not
| inducted into the Guptian priesthood, a silicon carver could
| expect a so-called 99-6 life, a 105-Earth-hour cycle with 99
| hours in a warfab and 6 hours to rest (J'Hrar et al).
| Furthermore, per a recent discovery of a transaction record
| thought likely to be payment for living volume at the Western-
| American coastal enclave, the artisan class appears to have
| little in the way of disposable resourcing. Thus, we consider
| it unlikely that an artisan of that period could have spared or
| even been allowed the resources or time for such levity."
| fentonc wrote:
| I am now adding "Silicon Carver" to my resume.
| makapuf wrote:
| Love the project, writing style and what is was made of (fpga,
| round lcd, Jupiter moons sim... so cool). But now I'm frustrated
| I can't see the display animation.
| fentonc wrote:
| It updates in pretty close to realtime (ie the simulator
| timestep is extremely close to the actual wall clock time
| required to compute the next timestep), so "animation" isn't
| really the right word. If you let it go for a few hours it
| leaves fun star trails though!
| Erikun wrote:
| " But how do you tell the time?
|
| With great difficulty."
| DaoVeles wrote:
| So pointless it had to be done. Bravo!
| swerling wrote:
| Thanks for the smile OP.
|
| How soon until the 1/25-scale cray C90 gets as many MIPS as the
| original? Seems like the one he built is within shouting
| distance.
| burningChrome wrote:
| My Dad was at the forefront of the computer revolution. He talked
| about sharing time with Seymour Cray at his computer lab at the
| University of Minnesota. He said whenever Cray would show up on
| campus, it was like Mick Jagger or some other rock star type.
| People would flock to be around him and ask him questions.
|
| He then worked alongside Cray and sold many of his computers when
| they were both at Control Data. He has a ton of stories of how he
| would go into huge companies like 3M and tell them everything
| they knew about data storage was about to change. He said their
| jaws would drop when he gave them numbers on how much they were
| going to save by using the new Cray computers.
|
| Its very cool and nostalgic to hear people doing these projects
| and keeping the early days of the computer revolution alive.
| hypercube33 wrote:
| I really feel like Cray was a larger than life person with any
| of the stories I've read. It really makes me wonder why no one
| has made a docudrama movie about him...hmm
| pklausler wrote:
| I had the opportunity to work for Seymour Cray when he split
| off Cray Computer Corp. from Cray Research in '89 and a bunch
| of us moved to Colorado Springs. He was a fairly quiet and
| intense guy, always focused on whatever the "pacing item" of
| the project happened to be that day.
| rhelz wrote:
| How many tens of thousands of computer architects... how many
| millions of creative ideas....
|
| ..and how Few people actually came up with anything which
| really moved the needle.
| daniel_iversen wrote:
| I honesty dream of having a real old Cray 1 as a couch :-) -
| those designs were just something we don't see today, huh!?
| bvan wrote:
| Brilliant.
| throwaway112996 wrote:
| Very ugly obviously
| TomMasz wrote:
| The lead photo doesn't give you a good impression of the size of
| the thing, he saves that for the end.
| AdamN wrote:
| Best statement ever, "... using it should be as incomprehensible
| as my motivation for creating it in the first place!"
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