03 February 2024 - 09 February 2024
Table of Contents
- 1. MIT OCW
- 2. wood chips
- 3. SCZ Front Step
- 4. Compilers
- 5. Various i686
- 6. piper
- 7. Buffalo WZR-HP-G300NH
- 8. SJC weather station
- 9. opencl
- 10. EPLDH
- 11. wktpqb
- 12. Mill Controller #2
- 13. Alum Rock Data Center
- 14. CA Root Key Generation
- 15. Virtual Orchestra
- 16. gat
- 17. RIOT drivers
- 18. mcd05 32 button/led box
- 19. AMD 2900 bitslice computing
- 20. Hitachi HD68B09E CPU
- 21. Rockwell R65F11
- 22. PLD programming
- 23. EPROM Programming
- 24. POSIT
- 25. MAME
- 26. More project ideas
- 27. David Davies
1. MIT OCW
1.1. 18.06sc (Linear Algebra)
1.1.1. Unit I - Multiplication and Inverse Matrices
2. wood chips
Rainy.
3. SCZ Front Step
No progress. Wet, Rainy…
4. Compilers
4.1. Work out overall plan.
Lots of moving pieces.
4.2. Looking into LLVM MLIR.
Will not use immediately, but perhaps trend in that direction.
4.3. ASDL
Basically a 1997 version of MLIR written mostly in ML (anyone remember that?). Original version of asdlGen has bitrotted beyond immediate usability, but smlnj (http://smlnj.cs.uchicago.edu/) has a version that works, albeit only for SML and C++. Python3 also has a Python specific compiler. Investigating the difficulty of an ASDL compiler targeting 'C'.
5. Various i686
5.0.1. netbsd
installed. (but on what? - now can't remember).
5.0.2. buildroot
builds complete.
6. piper
6.1. dovecot
6.1.1. Raising apparmor error.
Not sure how to resolve.
6.2. pidgeonhole
6.2.1. procmail replacement.
6.2.2. Considering integration.
6.3. httpd
6.3.1. Still stable.
But seems to occassionally mis-serve files.
6.4. SSL cert
Trying letsencrypt with certbot. http problem above may be interfering.
6.5. redmine
Still not sure I want to go down this rabbit hole.
6.6. openvpn
Need to consider cert construction.
7. Buffalo WZR-HP-G300NH
7.1. Update
Sometime next year.
8. SJC weather station
8.1. Still having wireless connectivity problems
Need 20m cable.
8.2. Really Really should put CPU in a proper enclosure
9. opencl
9.1. Studying. Have some examples working.
9.2. Need to look at arrayfire as an alternative.
9.3. This is a bit of a hammer looking for a nail.
10. EPLDH
10.1. MPFI interval arithmetic better alternative
11. wktpqb
11.1. needs a new approach
11.2. Verifying edge construction (con't.)
11.3. 'gcd' algorithm doesn't work
12. Mill Controller #2
12.1. Mounted on mill - ready or testing
12.2. Need to investigate new HW/SW for eventual replacements
12.2.1. Old crap ain't gonna last forever
12.2.2. Buildroot/Linux 5.15 PREEMPT + latency tools
First pass done - boots on real hardware
12.3. Alternative architecture
12.3.1. Split off stepper motor controller to separate board
Increase latency tolerance on controller
12.3.2. Use emc2 MODBUS/TCP protocol for stepper and other IO
13. Alum Rock Data Center
13.1. May have problem with network power module.
It's only 30 years old or something like that.
13.2. Added Ethernet card to tuffy
Should prepare as backup server.
14. CA Root Key Generation
Nice to have an appliance that manages keys. Need to make this simple. Really don't have time for a science project. Could just buy something from nitrokey https://www.nitrokey.com/ But I really don't want to spend money on it of I have hardware already.
14.1. 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?
14.2. Simple hardware.
14.2.1. Use some modern device TPM
Need to export data for backup.
14.2.2. Or something that uses PKCS11 interface
14.3. 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.
14.4. Use Sneakernet
Doesn't scale. Should use something so cert updates are automatable. But that's a science project it seems.
15. Virtual Orchestra
15.1. sfz file tests
15.1.1. need tooling to edit sample files
15.2. increasingly skeptical whether quality results are possible
15.3. maybe should treat as platform for concatinative synthesis
15.4. maybe should just accept the limitations and work with it
One should not be disappointed that a guitar can't sound like a flute.
16. gat
16.1. spectrogram done - matches 'octave' output
17. RIOT drivers
Implemented - needs testing.
17.1. WS2801
17.2. Velleman KA03
17.3. Velleman KA05
18. mcd05 32 button/led box
18.1. Recovered schematics.
18.2. Planning software.
18.3. Received STM32F767 Nucleo144 with Ethernet.
18.3.1. Test program running.
18.3.2. Need to consider CoAP multicast discovery.
18.3.3. Consider simpler architecture with STM32F767 as a 'hub'.
18.3.4. Consider CAN interface to hub.
19. AMD 2900 bitslice computing
19.1. Probably my oldest uncompleted project
19.2. Exploring possibilities for something constructive
Create verilog models for 2903/2910 and verify against hardware?
20. Hitachi HD68B09E CPU
20.1. RAM/UART/IO
20.2. Started schematic
20.2.1. Standard peripheral set for 8 bit CPU bringups
Board schematic planned - need Kicad symbols
20.3. Arduino Mega 2560 DMA loader
…Along with standard 8 bit loader
20.4. Generate quadrature clock directly
20.5. Full Bus SW Emulation infeasible
6809 1000ns maximum cycle time too short
21. Rockwell R65F11
21.1. Still evaluating.
21.2. 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.
22. 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.
23. EPROM Programming
Found some software for Needham programmer. Need to check electrolytic caps on ISA board.
24. POSIT
24.1. Use POSITs for YRX?
No. Existing library is fine.
25. MAME
25.1. Subset builds in debug mode
Full debug fails - not enough disk or memory.
25.2. gs6809 serial IO doesn't work right with PTY and other streams
25.3. ampro (Z80/Z80SIO) does work with PTY
25.4. Evaluating what is needed for other emulators.
26. More project ideas
26.1. Zuse Z3 simulation in Verilog
Good excuse for floating point ALU design. Try posit format?
26.2. GMPForth ports to simulators
26.2.1. SIMH for some targets (vax)
26.2.2. MAME looks interesting for microprocessor system emulations
How to support ersatz systems?
26.2.3. Ports to classic figFORTH targets
26.3. GMPASM assembler
May be useful for handbuilt and rare systems (DMX1000?).
26.4. Extracting ISO Superboard Forth ROMS for MAME emulation
26.5. 'bwocl' OpenCL tooling
26.5.1. Offline compilation
26.5.2. Standard Kernel Running
26.6. hardware support for classic 5V CPUs
26.6.1. RTX2000, CDP1802 still available!
26.6.2. 6502, 68000, 320C30, others on hand
26.6.3. CPUs with totally async bus may be supportable without RAM
26.6.4. Could use small footprint monitor in asm (gmpmon?)
26.7. Existing 'retro' hardware still working?
26.7.1. OSI Superboard
Unknown. Composite to VGA adapter didn't seem to work. Needs analysis. Found OSI model 610 board underneath!
26.7.2. Super Jolt
No output. Needs analysis.
26.7.3. Ampro Little Board
Not booting. Needs analysis.
26.7.4. Rockwell R65F11 Demo board
UART sending "NO ROM" at 2400 7N1 as expected with 2MHz xtal. MAME emulator possibilities?
26.7.5. NMIX-0016
Works. Found original prom in a parts stash(!).