ChatGPT tells me about Insulation-Displacement Connector cables, such as these.
IDC ribbon cables
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Category Archives: Notes
RTL
The initialism “RTL” can stand for both “Register Transfer Level” and “Resistor-Transistor Logic” as explained by ChatGPT.
Critical Path != Critical Section
I always get the concepts “critical path” and “critical section” confused.
The “critical section” is the part in your algorithm which you must hold a lock for; whereas the “critical path” is an idea from hardware design which relates to the time taken for the longest combinatorial logic that needs to be processed during a clock cycle, thus limiting the frequency you can run your clock at.
Although the terminology “critical path” came from hardware, the same terminology is used in software. ChatGPT has a fairly good write-up on the two uses of the term “critical path”.
I learned a little more about this in Introduction to VHDL for FPGA and ASIC design.
CRC
I watched Ben Eater’s videos How do CRCs work? and Checksums and Hamming distance (the full course is Learn about error detection) then found the Wikipedia page: Cyclic redundancy check.
Also of interest:
Keyspace on the back of an envelope
One question that always plagues me: should I use 32-bit or 64-bit keys. I can never make a firm decision on this point. But I’ve just done some back of the envelope calculations in thinking about it.
If you issued one identity per second, every second of every day, it would take 136 years to exhaust the keyspace.
If you issued one thousand identities per second, it would take 50 days to exhaust the keyspace.
BPS BB830
These BB830 breadboards are the ones Ben Eater uses in his videos.
HP-16C
I was watching Ben Eater’s video Build an 8-bit decimal display for our 8-bit computer and I was interested in what calculator he was using. Seems to be an HP-16C.
YouTube channel logo
I wanted a new logo to go with my YouTube channel to replace a very old photo of me. So I asked ChatGPT and it didn’t let me down!
Amphetamine
I wanted to know how to stop my MacBook Pro from going to sleep when I closed its lid, so I asked ChatGPT and discovered Amphetamine. Good work, Internet; you have come a long way since the nineties.
p.s. I always wanted to blog about amphetamines.
Keyrings
It is well known that I am a nerd. But if there were any doubt, this removes it. :)