Chris Gammell and Dave Jones' voices span the chasm of thousands of miles each and every week to speak to each other and industry experts about where the field of electronics is moving. Whether it be a late breaking story about a large semiconductor manufacturer, a new piece of must-have test equipment or just talking through recent issues with their circuit designs, Chris and Dave try to make electronics more accessible for the listeners. Most importantly, they try and make the field of electronics more fun. Guests range from advanced hobbyists working on exciting new projects up through C-level executives at a variety of relevant and innovative companies. Tune in to learn more about electronics and then join the conversation! Visit The Amp Hour website for our back catalog of 150+ episodes.
https://theamphour.com
#361 – An Interview with Ken Shirriff
Welcome Ken Shirriff from Righto.com!
- Ken uses a metallugical microscope and the hyugens software package to stitch together the images.
- Inside fake RAM chips
- Armour etch will remove the top layer of oxide
- Analyzing a vintage 8008
- Mining bitcoin with pencil and paper. Ken made a video of this as well.
- Mining bitcoin on a Xerox Alto!
- Xerox Alto , precursor to (all computers, but also the) Xerox Star
- Alan Kay
- yCombinator contacted Ken to rebuild theirs.
- The IBM 1401 demo lab
- Living computer museum in Seattle
- Smalltalk –
- BCPL
- The 76477 sound chip
- Integrated Injection Logic
- Day 31 of restoration
- The Alto had the first version of tons of modern computer peripherals:
- Mouse
- Laser Printer
- Ethernet
- Ken displayed his work at the recent VCF
- They found a disk with an early version of Voice over IP!
- Bell Labs discovering big bang (microwave background radiation)
- Sinclair calculator simulator
- Ken was inspired by the Visual 6502
- CuriousMarc is a YouTube channel that followed the Alto rebuild
- TI Calculator simulator
- Ken uses lots of patents like this one from TI
- There are interesting things happening in Mac chargers (and the ripoffs)
- DS2413 1-Wire switch
- iPad chargers were interesting as well
- Sprite_tm talking about FTDI parts
- Ken also tears down vintage parts like the 555
- Figured out transistors on die from books, LT Spice
- Transfluxors – core memory
- Read more on righto.com or follow Ken on Twitter as @KenShirriff