Franck-Hertz experiment Updated +Created
What I cannot create, I do not understand Updated +Created
The mantra of the computer simulation engineer.
German nuclear weapons program Updated +Created
Mental state Updated +Created
Voltage Updated +Created
Fluid mechanics Updated +Created
Boooooring.
Memory semantics Updated +Created
These are the rules which specify what different concurrent read/write memory accesses from different threads/processes can or cannot see.
Notable such set of rules include:
Deltaflow.OS Updated +Created
A "quantum computer operating system". Or in English, control system + quantum error correction.
uknqt.ukri.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/UKNQTP-Strategic-Intent-2020.pdf page 24 mentions UKNQTP investment and gives an overview of some layers.
Quantum information Updated +Created
Transistor Updated +Created
Although transistors were revolutionary, it is fun to note that they were just "way cheaper and more reliable and smaller" versions of exactly the main functions that a vacuum tube could achieve
Group homomorphism Updated +Created
Like isomorphism, but does not have to be one-to-one: multiple different inputs can have the same output.
The image is as for any function smaller or equal in size as the domain of course.
This brings us to the key intuition about group homomorphisms: they are a way to split out a larger group into smaller groups that retains a subset of the original structure.
As shown by the fundamental theorem on homomorphisms, each group homomorphism is fully characterized by a normal subgroup of the domain.
Golden Crescent Updated +Created
Vector field Updated +Created
Series RC circuit Updated +Created
The real projective plane is not simply connected Updated +Created
To see that the real projective plane is not simply connected space, considering the lines through origin model of the real projective plane, take a loop that starts at and moves along the great circle ends at .
Note that both of those points are the same, so we have a loop.
Now try to shrink it to a point.
There's just no way!
Electronic design automation Updated +Created
A set of software programs that compile high level register transfer level languages such as Verilog into something that a fab can actually produce. One is reminded of a compiler toolchain but on a lower level.
The most important steps of that include:
Male Updated +Created
Penis Updated +Created
The Supermen: The Story of Seymour Cray by Charles J. Murray (1997) Updated +Created
Borrow from the Internet Archive for free: archive.org/details/supermenstory00murr
Initial chapters put good clarity on the formation of the military-industrial complex. Being backed by the military, especially just after World War II, was in itself enough credibility to start and foster a company.
It is funny to see how the first computers were very artisanal, made on a one-off basis.
Amazing how Control Data Corporation raised capital IPO style as a startup without a product. The dude was selling shares at dinner parties in his home.
Very interesting mention on page 70 of how Israel bought CDC's UNIVAC 1103 which Cray contributed greatly to design, and everyone knew that it was to make thermonuclear weapons, since that was what the big American labs like this mention should be added to: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_weapons_and_Israel but that's Extended Protected... the horrors of Wikipedia.
Another interesting insight is how "unintegrated" computers were back then. They were literally building computers out of individual vacuum tubes, then individual semiconducting transistors, a gate at a time. Then things got more and more integrated as time went. That is why the now outdated word "microprocessor" existed. When processors start to fit into a single integrated circuit, they were truly micro compared to the monstrosities that existed previously.
Also, because integration was so weak initially, it was important to more manually consider the length of wire signals had to travel, and try to put components closer together to reduce the critical path to be able to increase clock speeds. These constraints are also of course present in modern computer design, but they were just so much more visible in those days.
The book does unfortunately not give much detail in Crays personal life as mentioned on this book review: www.goodreads.com/review/show/1277733185?book_show_action=true. His childhood section is brief, and his wedding is described in one paragraph, and divorce in one sentence. Part of this is because he was very private about his family most likely note how Wikipedia had missed his first wedding, and likely misattribute children to the second wedding; en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Seymour_Cray section "Weddings and Children".
Crays work philosophy is is highlighted many times in the book, and it is something worthy to have in mind:
  • if a design is not working, start from scratch
  • don't be the very first pioneer of a technology, let others work out the problems for you first, and then come second and win
Cray's final downfall was when he opted to try to use a promising but hard to work with material gallium arsenide instead of silicon as his way to try and speed up computers, see also: gallium arsenide vs silicon. Also, he went against the extremely current of the late 80's early 90's pointing rather towards using massively parallel systems based on silicon off-the-shelf Intel processors, a current that had DARPA support, and which by far the path that won very dramatically as of 2020, see: Intel supercomputer market share.

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