04 November 2023 - 10 November 2023

1. MIT OCW
- 1.1. 18.03sc (differential equations).
  - 1.1.1. Unit IV - Matrix Methods: Eigenvalues and Normal Modes
2. wood chips
3. SCZ Front Step
- 3.1. Need to take door sill to SJ to clean up
4. Abby
- 4.1. Arch installed
- 4.2. Slurm install was a PITA
5. Tuffy
- 5.1. Arch installed.
6. Piper
- 6.1. Arch installed.
7. Next arch installs
- 7.1. M22 (AMD kavari box)
- 7.2. Various i686
8. amdgpu gcn assembly framework started
9. quilt block rearrangement
10. EPLDH
- 10.1. MPFI interval arithmetic better alternative
11. wktpqb
- 11.1. Verifying edge construction (con't.)
- 11.2. 'gcd' algorithm doesn't work
12. Compilers
- 12.1. Started hand written WSN parser
13. Mill Controller #2
- 13.1. Mounted on mill - ready or testing
- 13.2. Need to investigate new HW/SW for eventual replacements
  - 13.2.1. Old crap ain't gonna last forever
  - 13.2.2. Buildroot/Linux 5.15 PREEMPT + latency tools
- 13.3. Alternative architecture
  - 13.3.1. Split off stepper motor controller to separate board
  - 13.3.2. Use emc2 MODBUS/TCP protocol for stepper and other IO
14. Alum Rock Data Center
- 14.1. Use Arch linux
- 14.2. Need a VPS with static IP
15. CA Root Key Generation
- 15.1. Need to be clear on security properties.
- 15.2. Simple hardware.
- 15.3. USB Serial interface only but no credentials across USB I/F.
- 15.4. Use Sneakernet
- 15.5. Beagleboard
- 15.6. LCD Touchscreen
- 15.7. Morse code PIN
- 15.8. Telephone Keypad or some such
- 15.9. Encrypted Filesystem
16. Virtual Orchestra
- 16.1. sfz file tests
  - 16.1.1. need tooling to edit sample files
- 16.2. increasingly skeptical whether quality results are possible
- 16.3. maybe should treat as platform for concatinative synthesis
- 16.4. maybe should just accept the limitations and work with it
17. gat
- 17.1. spectrogram done - matches 'octave' output
18. RIOT drivers
- 18.1. WS2801
- 18.2. Velleman KA03
- 18.3. Velleman KA05
19. mcd05 32 button/led box
- 19.1. Recovered schematics.
- 19.2. Planning software.
- 19.3. Received STM32F767 Nucleo144 with Ethernet.
20. AMD 2900 bitslice computing
- 20.1. Probably my oldest uncompleted project
- 20.2. Exploring possibilities for something constructive
21. Hitachi HD68B09E CPU
- 21.1. RAM/UART/IO
- 21.2. Started schematic
  - 21.2.1. Standard peripheral set for 8 bit CPU bringups
- 21.3. Arduino Mega 2560 DMA loader
- 21.4. Generate quadrature clock directly
- 21.5. Full Bus SW Emulation infeasible
22. Rockwell R65F11
- 22.1. Still evaluating.
- 22.2. Dev board
23. PLD programming
24. EPROM Programming
25. POSIT
- 25.1. Use POSITs for YRX?
26. MAME
- 26.1. Subset builds in debug mode
- 26.2. gs6809 serial IO doesn't work right with PTY and other streams
- 26.3. ampro (Z80/Z80SIO) does work with PTY
- 26.4. Evaluating what is needed for other emulators.
27. More project ideas
- 27.1. Zuse Z3 simulation in Verilog
- 27.2. GMPForth ports to simulators
- 27.3. GMPASM assembler
- 27.4. Extracting ISO Superboard Forth ROMS for MAME emulation
- 27.5. 'bwocl' OpenCL tooling
  - 27.5.1. Offline compilation
  - 27.5.2. Standard Kernel Running
- 27.6. hardware support for classic 5V CPUs
- 27.7. Existing 'retro' hardware still working?
28. David Davies
- 28.1. Broadcom BCG? Employee indicted for running a brothel.
- 28.2. New case C1923172, consolidated with 15 Parties.
- 28.3. Next hearing 2/26/2024

1. MIT OCW

1.1. 18.03sc (differential equations).

1.1.1. Unit IV - Matrix Methods: Eigenvalues and Normal Modes

2. wood chips

Continuing.

3. SCZ Front Step

3.1. Need to take door sill to SJ to clean up

Need to rotate tablesaw to accomodate.

4. Abby

4.1. Arch installed

4.2. Slurm install was a PITA

Alder Lake asymmetric P/E cores not well handled by slurm. Probably not worth it to continue this direction.

5. Tuffy

5.1. Arch installed.

6. Piper

6.1. Arch installed.

Piper UEFI Bios only allows signed bootloader; so arch and debian 12 installs weren't bootble. Alma Linux would not even install (so centos stream wasn't even tried). CentOS 7 was bootable, so a minimal installation was kept and uses grub to chain load limine to boot arch. This may have been luck. My understanding is that UEFI signed grub at some point disallowed chain loading unsigned EFI executables (make sense, really). Definitely a Rube Goldberg arrangement. 50G bootloader.

7. Next arch installs

7.1. M22 (AMD kavari box)

7.2. Various i686

Let's see how the 32 bit version works!

8. amdgpu gcn assembly framework started

It's disappointing how poor the compute support is for AMD integrated GPUs. OpenCL and OpenMP offload both crash X driver on Kiki with amdgpu driver complaints. Simple GCN assembly example does work, so this effort somewhat restarts the old kaveri 'kmtrun' concept. Working example HSA API loader in C++ is being reverse-engineered to nice, clean, generalized C code.

9. quilt block rearrangement

Another 'falling charms' quilt top needs arrangement. The existing 'quilt-block' arranger failed to find a solution, so perhaps it's time for a high performance simulated annealing approach instead of the ruby shuffle.

10. EPLDH

10.1. MPFI interval arithmetic better alternative

11. wktpqb

11.1. Verifying edge construction (con't.)

11.2. 'gcd' algorithm doesn't work

12. Compilers

12.1. Started hand written WSN parser

13. Mill Controller #2

13.1. Mounted on mill - ready or testing

13.2. Need to investigate new HW/SW for eventual replacements

13.2.1. Old crap ain't gonna last forever

13.2.2. Buildroot/Linux 5.15 PREEMPT + latency tools

First pass done - boots on real hardware

13.3. Alternative architecture

13.3.1. Split off stepper motor controller to separate board

Increase latency tolerance on controller

13.3.2. Use emc2 MODBUS/TCP protocol for stepper and other IO

14. Alum Rock Data Center

14.1. Use Arch linux

Thanks to niece Danielle for consultation.

14.2. Need a VPS with static IP

14.2.1. OpenVPN to tie it all together

14.2.2. Gandi VPS datacenter in France so connection crosses international border

What are the data security and privacy tradeoffs?

14.2.3. Prototype VPS on existing hardware

OpenStack?

15. CA Root Key Generation

Nice to have an appliance that manages keys. Could just buy something from nitrokey https://www.nitrokey.com/

15.1. Need to be clear on security properties.

Definitely protect against remote access to private keys. How strong does the protection against local access need to be?

15.2. Simple hardware.

15.3. USB Serial interface only but no credentials across USB I/F.

But this potentially exposes the hardware to remote access via the USB I/F when connected.

15.4. Use Sneakernet

Using "disk drive" IO introduces air gap - remote access impossible. Increases attack surface via filesystem manipulation. But use signed requests, so attacks would have to be insider requests.

15.5. Beagleboard

Found in SCZ. Thought it was in SJ.

15.6. LCD Touchscreen

Unlocks encrypted filesystem. Maybe not needed. See below.

15.7. Morse code PIN

Only need ONE button, and a pass/fail LED. Hardware will never go EOL (Thanks Elena!). Susceptible to remote audio recording of PIN button noise, which could be overcome by using 2FA. Again - what am I protecting against?

15.8. Telephone Keypad or some such

May be more straightforward.

15.9. Encrypted Filesystem

For sensitive material only.

16. Virtual Orchestra

16.1. sfz file tests

16.1.1. need tooling to edit sample files

16.2. increasingly skeptical whether quality results are possible

16.3. maybe should treat as platform for concatinative synthesis

16.4. maybe should just accept the limitations and work with it

One should not be disappointed that a guitar can't sound like a flute.

17. gat

17.1. spectrogram done - matches 'octave' output

18. RIOT drivers

Implemented - needs testing.

18.1. WS2801

18.2. Velleman KA03

18.3. Velleman KA05

19. mcd05 32 button/led box

19.1. Recovered schematics.

19.2. Planning software.

19.3. Received STM32F767 Nucleo144 with Ethernet.

19.3.1. Test program running.

19.3.2. Need to consider CoAP multicast discovery.

19.3.3. Consider simpler architecture with STM32F767 as a 'hub'.

19.3.4. Consider CAN interface to hub.

20. AMD 2900 bitslice computing

20.1. Probably my oldest uncompleted project

20.2. Exploring possibilities for something constructive

Create verilog models for 2903/2910 and verify against hardware?

21. Hitachi HD68B09E CPU

21.1. RAM/UART/IO

21.2. Started schematic

21.2.1. Standard peripheral set for 8 bit CPU bringups

Board schematic planned - need Kicad symbols

21.3. Arduino Mega 2560 DMA loader

…Along with standard 8 bit loader

21.4. Generate quadrature clock directly

21.5. Full Bus SW Emulation infeasible

6809 1000ns maximum cycle time too short

22. Rockwell R65F11

22.1. Still evaluating.

22.2. Dev board

Reverse engineered some of a mostly fully built development board with one part missing. As near as I can tell, that one part is some sort of programmable address decoder with a pinout that does not correspond to any part I can find. Kind of like a GAL but with inputs on top and outputs on bottom (as opposed to left and right in a standard GAL). I have no idea what the provenance of this board is and if it ever worked.

23. PLD programming

Looks like Atmel 16V8 is the last 5V PLD part left standing. Maybe not surprising that there still doesn't appear to be a fully open source tool chain for programming. How hard could it be? (!) Could next-pnr generic help? Might be easier to use espresso for logic array and program output logic bits directly for simple stuff.

24. EPROM Programming

Found some software for Needham programmer. Need to check electrolytic caps on ISA board.

25. POSIT

25.1. Use POSITs for YRX?

No. Existing library is fine.

26. MAME

26.1. Subset builds in debug mode

Full debug fails - not enough disk or memory.

26.2. gs6809 serial IO doesn't work right with PTY and other streams

26.3. ampro (Z80/Z80SIO) does work with PTY

26.4. Evaluating what is needed for other emulators.

27. More project ideas

27.1. Zuse Z3 simulation in Verilog

Good excuse for floating point ALU design. Try posit format?

27.2. GMPForth ports to simulators

27.2.1. SIMH for some targets (vax)

27.2.2. MAME looks interesting for microprocessor system emulations

How to support ersatz systems?

27.2.3. Ports to classic figFORTH targets

27.3. GMPASM assembler

May be useful for handbuilt and rare systems (DMX1000?).

27.4. Extracting ISO Superboard Forth ROMS for MAME emulation

27.5. 'bwocl' OpenCL tooling

27.5.1. Offline compilation

27.5.2. Standard Kernel Running

27.6. hardware support for classic 5V CPUs

27.6.1. RTX2000, CDP1802 still available!

27.6.2. 6502, 68000, 320C30, others on hand

27.6.3. CPUs with totally async bus may be supportable without RAM

27.6.4. Could use small footprint monitor in asm (gmpmon?)

27.7. Existing 'retro' hardware still working?

27.7.1. OSI Superboard

Unknown. Composite to VGA adapter didn't seem to work. Needs analysis. Found OSI model 610 board underneath!

27.7.2. Super Jolt

No output. Needs analysis.

27.7.3. Ampro Little Board

Not booting. Needs analysis.

27.7.4. Rockwell R65F11 Demo board

UART sending "NO ROM" at 2400 7N1 as expected with 2MHz xtal. MAME emulator possibilities?