Webtagr - Technology News Summarizer

My $91 PowerMac G4 MDD Repair Odyssey: A Tale of Woe and Triumph

2025-04-14

The author acquired a cheap PowerMac G4 MDD, only to find it missing RAM, HDD, and a PRAM battery. After a frantic parts hunt and assembly, the machine booted, but the noise was deafening. Attempting a fan replacement, the author broke the original fan, forcing the purchase of a high-performance replacement. While the noise issue was solved, the new fan roared. The entire journey was a hilarious mix of unexpected problems and eventual success, offering a valuable lesson in vintage hardware repair.

(loganius.org)

Hardware Repair

KickSmash32: Open-Source Amiga ROM Replacement Module

2025-04-12

KickSmash32 is an open-source Kickstart ROM replacement module for Amiga 3000 and 4000 systems. Supporting up to 8 independent flash banks, it allows ROM programming and switching via Amiga command-line utilities or a Linux host utility (USB-C). Optional host file services enable easy file transfers between the Amiga and host PC. Comprehensive documentation and build instructions are provided. Note that due to inconsistent ROM socket layouts across Amiga models, KickSmash32 is only compatible with Amiga 3000 and the original Amiga 4000.

(github.com)

Hardware ROM replacement

32-bit RISC-V Processor Built from Molybdenum Disulfide

2025-04-11

Researchers have created a groundbreaking 32-bit RISC-V processor using molybdenum disulfide (MoS2), a significant advancement in 'beyond silicon' hardware. Unable to dope MoS2 like silicon to adjust threshold voltage, they cleverly used different metal wiring (aluminum and gold) and embedding materials. Machine learning optimized transistor combinations. The resulting processor, with 5900 transistors, boasts a 99.8% chip-level yield, despite slower speeds, and implements the full 32-bit RISC-V instruction set. While initially limited to low-power applications like sensors, its future potential is vast.

(arstechnica.com)

Hardware Molybdenum Disulfide Beyond Silicon

The Mystery of the Strobe Dots on Your Turntable

2025-04-10

Those little dots on your turntable aren't just for looks; they're a clever speed-checking mechanism! The 'stroboscopic effect' lets you visually verify your turntable's RPM accuracy. A quick glance tells you if the platter is spinning at the correct speed. Jumping or drifting dots? Time to check your motor or pitch slider. This article explains the physics behind this handy feature and how to use it to ensure your vinyl plays perfectly.

(www.djmentors.com)

Hardware turntable stroboscopic effect vinyl

Dissecting the British BS 1363 Plug & Socket: A Safety Masterpiece

2025-04-10

This article delves into the safety features of the British Standard BS 1363 plug and socket system. The design emphasizes safety shutters protecting live and neutral contacts, and mandates a fuse within the plug to prevent overcurrent. Details like preventing accidental unplugging and a safe disconnection sequence are also highlighted. Various BS 1363 plugs and sockets are showcased, including RCD-protected sockets and military variants, offering a detailed look at their safety and design philosophy.

(www.plugsocketmuseum.nl)

Hardware plug

Corebooting My Thinkpad T420: A Tale of Woe

2025-04-09

This post details the author's arduous journey of installing Coreboot on a Thinkpad T420. From the painstaking disassembly of the robust laptop, to wrestling with finicky IC clip connections and battling UEFI compatibility issues during Coreboot compilation, the process proved exceptionally challenging. While the author ultimately succeeded in flashing Coreboot and achieved faster boot times, several functionalities, including Windows XP booting, the hardware clock, and other payloads, are now broken. The author expresses uncertainty about continued Coreboot usage unless a CPU upgrade is pursued.

(lilysthings.org)

Hardware

Improving GPD Pocket 4 Speaker Sound: PipeWire and Convolution DSP Magic

2025-04-09

Modern laptop speakers rely heavily on digital signal processing (DSP) to sound good. The author measured the frequency response of the GPD Pocket 4's built-in speakers using Room EQ Wizard, revealing a noticeable resonance peak at ~4kHz causing harshness. By generating a convolution filter's impulse response with REW and leveraging the PipeWire audio server, the author compensated for this flaw, significantly improving sound quality, mirroring similar optimizations done by the Asahi Linux project for Apple Silicon MacBooks.

(kittenlabs.de)

Hardware convolution DSP

Samsung's Ballie Robot Launches This Summer with Gemini AI

2025-04-09

Samsung announced today that its Ballie robot will go on sale in the US and South Korea this summer. This diminutive robot will ship with a Gemini AI model thanks to a partnership with Google Cloud. Ballie boasts multimodal capabilities, processing voice, audio, and visual data to manage smart home devices and even offer health and styling advice. While pricing remains unannounced, this iteration of the robot, first shown at CES 2024 (after a 2020 debut), finally arrives after delays.

(www.engadget.com)

Hardware Robot

Portable Recorder Mic Input Noise Shootout

2025-04-09

Manufacturers of portable audio recorders often use inconsistent specifications, making objective comparisons difficult, especially for recording quiet animal sounds. This benchmark compares the microphone input noise of various recorders. Data includes Equivalent Input Noise (EIN), input clipping level, and dynamic range at maximum gain, presented in both A-weighted and unweighted measurements across the 20Hz-20kHz range. Results reveal significant differences in noise performance between models, helping users choose the best recorder for their needs.

(avisoft.com)

Hardware recorder microphone

Razer Halts Blade 16 Preorders Amidst US Tariffs

2025-04-09

Razer has pulled the Blade 16 and other laptops from its US website, halting preorders and purchases. This coincides with the recent announcement of US tariffs on countries including China and Taiwan, major sources of laptop components. While Razer hasn't publicly commented on the impact of tariffs, the Blade 16 configurator now returns a 404 error, and other products only offer a 'notify me' option. However, the Blade 16 remains available for preorder in other countries, suggesting US sales may have been paused due to the tariffs.

(www.theverge.com)

Hardware

FPGA Recreation of the 1956 LGP-30 Personal Computer

2025-04-08

An enthusiast has recreated the 1956 LGP-30 computer using an FPGA. Considered one of the first personal computers due to its simple design and low cost, this recreation faithfully reproduces the LGP-30's bit-serial CPU and magnetic drum storage using modern components like a Numato Mimas FPGA development board. Users can observe its inner workings via an added LCD and HDMI display, even stepping through the program bit-by-bit. Complete build instructions, schematics, and source code are provided, allowing enthusiasts to build their own piece of computing history.

(www.e-basteln.de)

Hardware

From Mouse Ports to Thunderbolt: A History of Mac Connectors

2025-04-06

This article traces the evolution of Apple Mac computer connectors from 1984 to the present. From the initial DE-9 mouse port, RJ11 keyboard port, and RS-422 serial ports to later ADB, SCSI, Parallel ATA, USB, FireWire, and Thunderbolt, each connector reflects technological advancements and shifts in Apple's design philosophy. The article details the technical characteristics, applications, and Apple's choices at different times, showcasing a technological history rich in detail and stories.

(lowendmac.com)

Hardware Mac history connector evolution

Hardware Hacking: Extracting Firmware from an Electric Toothbrush with Raspberry Pi and PiFex

2025-04-06

This article details a hardware reverse engineering project targeting an electric toothbrush, using a Raspberry Pi and PiFex board. The author meticulously explains how to create a Raspberry Pi image with PiGen, pre-loaded with necessary software and configured for peripherals like UART, SPI, and I2C. OpenOCD WebUI and Jupyter Notebooks are leveraged for firmware extraction and hardware-level debugging. The process involves modifying configuration files, installing dependencies, and accessing the Pi via USB-to-Serial and USB-to-Ethernet gadgets. The ultimate goal is to extract the toothbrush's firmware and achieve hardware-level debugging.

(voidstarsec.com)

Hardware Hardware Reverse Engineering

Erica Synths Opensources its DIY Eurorack Modules

2025-04-06

Following the discontinuation of its legacy DIY eurorack projects, Erica Synths has decided to open-source them. They've provided Gerber files for PCB-made front panels and made slight design changes to eliminate custom and rare components (though some modules still require rare ICs available at www.ericasynths.lv). Each folder contains complete build information and files: schematics, front panel Gerber files, PCB Gerber files, BOMs, component placement with values and designators, and assembly manuals (note that some manuals are for older module versions). Erica Synths permits third-party use for personal, educational, or commercial purposes, but will provide no support; refer to forums (www.muffwiggler.com) for build nuances, troubleshooting, part availability, and alternatives. Open-sourced modules include: Bassline, BBD delay/flanger, Delay, Dual VCA, Envelope, MIDI-CV, Mixer, Modulator, Output, Polivoks VCF, Swamp, and VCO3.

(github.com)

Hardware

Diagnosing and Repairing a MacBook Pro Memory Failure: Pinpointing a Single Faulty RAM IC

2025-04-05

This article details how to pinpoint a single faulty RAM IC causing a memory failure using Memtest86 results and memory address decoding, using a late 2013 15-inch MacBook Pro as a case study. It analyzes the mapping between memory addresses and channels, ranks, and data bits, and uses schematics and board views to successfully replace the faulty IC and fix the memory issue. Note that this method relies on some reverse-engineered findings and requires some electronics repair skills.

(blog.piernov.org)

Hardware Memory Failure

Retired Broadcast Engineer's Dream Mini Rack: A Solution for 40+ Remote Tower Sites

2025-04-05

A retired broadcast engineer built a robust system for managing 40+ remote tower sites using a DeskPi RackMate T1 mini rack. This system integrates redundant internet connectivity, multiple audio source processing, silence monitoring, an exciter, and remote monitoring capabilities. The standardized setup allows for easier maintenance and deployment by volunteers. Improvements suggested include a larger rack, PoE power, and standardized mini-rack mounting options for better efficiency and convenience.

(github.com)

Hardware Mini Rack

Tracking the ISS with a repurposed IR Turret

2025-04-05

Using a HackPack IR turret received as a birthday gift, the author created a device that tracks the International Space Station (ISS) in real-time. By fetching Two-Line Element (TLE) data for the ISS and using the SGP4 algorithm to calculate its position, the author converted this into azimuth and elevation angles to control stepper and servo motors. The project involved astronomy calculations, embedded programming, and 3D modeling, showcasing creativity and technical skills. It offers a unique observation tool for amateur astronomers.

(faridrener.com)

Hardware

RDNA 4's Dynamic VGPR Allocation: A Ray Tracing Bottleneck Breaker

2025-04-05

AMD's RDNA 4 architecture introduces a novel dynamic VGPR (vector general-purpose register) allocation mode to address the trade-off between register count and occupancy in ray tracing. Traditional GPUs face limitations in ray tracing where fixed register allocation per thread restricts thread parallelism in stages with high register demands. RDNA 4's dynamic allocation allows threads to adjust register counts at runtime, increasing occupancy without enlarging the register file, thus reducing latency and boosting ray tracing performance. While this mode can lead to deadlocks, AMD mitigates this with a deadlock avoidance mode. This isn't a universal solution, limited to wave32 compute shaders, but significantly advances AMD's ray tracing capabilities.

(chipsandcheese.com)

Hardware Dynamic VGPR Allocation

8-Pin Linux: A Surprisingly Powerful Single-Board Computer

2025-04-04

This article details the creation of a remarkably compact Linux computer built using only three 8-pin chips. The author cleverly overcomes the limitations of the minimal pin count by creatively sharing pins between the SPI RAM and SD card, and implementing USB-to-serial communication and SD card access in software. The resulting miniature computer successfully runs Debian Linux, supporting tools like vi and gcc, showcasing ingenious design and surprising capabilities.

(dmitry.gr)

Hardware minimal hardware

The RAW Image Format Mess: Why Isn't DNG Universal?

2025-04-04

The world of camera RAW formats is a fragmented mess. Canon's CR3, Nikon's NEF, Sony's ARW, and others create compatibility headaches for software developers and users alike. Adobe's DNG (Digital Negative) attempted to solve this with an open standard, but major manufacturers cling to proprietary formats. This article explores the reasons behind this: tighter control over image processing pipelines and optimization for their own software. While DNG offers flexibility, ease of use, and future-proofing, larger companies prioritize performance and unique features. This creates friction for early adopters and software developers, but as long as manufacturers cooperate with Adobe, the status quo might persist.

(www.theverge.com)

Hardware RAW format

Coreboot 25.03 Released: Open-Source BIOS Gets Major Update

2025-04-04

Coreboot, the open-source BIOS/firmware solution, has released version 25.03, bringing significant improvements. This release boasts enhanced display handling, a better USB debugging experience, CPU topology updates, various improvements to open-source RAM initialization for aging Intel Haswell platforms, improved USB Type-C and Thunderbolt handling, various embedded controller (EC) improvements, better RISC-V architecture support, DDR5-7500 support, and numerous bug fixes. Furthermore, it adds support for 22 new motherboards, including several Google Chromebooks, the AMD "Crater" development platform, older ASRock motherboards, and StarLabs devices. The Intel Panther Lake reference platform, "Intel Ptlrvp," is also supported.

(www.phoronix.com)

Hardware Open-Source BIOS

DIY 30kW Dynamometer: Testing Electric Boat Gearboxes

2025-04-04

A mechanical engineer in the electric marine industry built a custom 30kW dynamometer to test marine transmissions he designs and builds. The dyno features torque measurement, water cooling, CAN bus integration, and a Python-based dashboard. The article details the build process, challenges encountered, and technical specifics, covering motor selection, sensor integration, data acquisition, and power supply. It also shares lessons learned in noise suppression and system integration.

(www.thriftybuilder.dev)

Hardware

Installing AIX 1.3 on a 486: A Retro Computing Odyssey

2025-04-03

After contracting COVID-19, the author embarked on a nostalgic project: installing AIX 1.3 on their aging 486 computer. This Franken-486, a collection of parts accumulated over three decades, presented numerous hurdles. The installation process involved 94 floppy disk images, grappling with IDE interface issues, VGA compatibility problems, and corrupted installation disks. The author's troubleshooting journey included swapping graphics cards, hard drives, recreating installation disks, and even crafting a custom VGA cable, yet the installation ultimately failed. This anecdote reflects a passion for retro computing and perseverance in overcoming technical challenges, highlighting the quirks and complexities of older hardware.

(hardwarehacks.org)

Hardware hardware installation

Tenstorrent Unveils Blackhole™ AI Accelerator Cards and Developer Hub

2025-04-03

Tenstorrent has launched its new Blackhole™ AI accelerator cards, featuring all-new RISC-V cores designed for efficient handling of massive AI workloads and offering an infinitely scalable solution. The Blackhole™ product line includes single-processor versions (p100 and p150, priced at $999 and $1299 respectively) and a four-processor liquid-cooled workstation, the TT-Quietbox ($11,999). The next-generation Blackhole™ PCIe cards boast a 6nm manufacturing process, faster Network-on-Chip (NoC), higher memory density, and additional integrated RISC-V cores. Alongside the hardware, Tenstorrent also launched a Developer Hub providing model support, tutorial videos, bounties, and resources for the developer community. All Blackhole™ cards and the TT-Quietbox are fully supported by Tenstorrent's open-source software stack, including TT-Forge™, TT-NN™, TT-Metalium™, and TT-LLK.

(tenstorrent.com)

Hardware

Reverse Engineering the Boot Process of a 90s AlphaStation 500

2025-04-03

The author acquired a broken AlphaStation 500 workstation and embarked on a journey to understand its boot process. The investigation centered around the SROM (Serial ROM), which contained eight multiplexed images selectable via jumpers. Using Python and Rust, the author extracted and decoded the SROM data, revealing Alpha machine code. Analysis revealed the CPU directly controls a serial port using internal processor registers for bit-banging. While the AlphaStation's boot issue remains unsolved, the process uncovered the unique boot mechanism of this vintage workstation.

(thejpster.org.uk)

Hardware

The 17-Year-Old ThinkPad: A Case Study in Robustness vs. Fragility

2025-04-03

This article contrasts a 17-year-old ThinkPad with a modern MacBook, exploring the relationship between product longevity and design philosophy. The ThinkPad, with its modular design, easy repairability, and open ecosystem, demonstrates remarkable resilience, allowing for easy repairs and upgrades even when things break. The author leverages Nassim Nicholas Taleb's Lindy Effect, arguing that products that have withstood the test of time tend to have longer lifespans. In contrast, the modern MacBook, while powerful, suffers from a closed design, difficult repairs, and dependence on Apple's software ecosystem, making it fragile and short-lived. The conclusion highlights the ThinkPad's durability stemming from its modularity and extensive community support, giving it a significantly longer lifespan.

(pilledtexts.com)

Hardware Lindy Effect

MIT's Open-Source Secure Hardware Design Course: Attack and Defense, Hands-On

2025-04-03

MIT's open-source course, Secure Hardware Design (6.5950/6.5951), uniquely teaches students both how to attack modern CPUs and design resilient architectures. Students gain hands-on experience hacking real processors, learning state-of-the-art hardware attacks and defenses. The course, a culmination of years of work, uses a 'Think-Play-Do' philosophy. Students learn through lectures, interactive CTF-style recitations, and labs involving real hardware attacks (no simulators!). The capstone project challenges students to create a CPU fuzzer to discover bugs in real CPU RTL designs.

(shd.mit.edu)

Hardware

Classic 2 Mouse Released: USB-C, Improved Scroll Wheel, and Still Open Source!

2025-04-02

The Classic 2 mouse is here, starting at $144 CAD! This updated version retains the beloved ergonomics of the original Classic, but features a significant upgrade to USB-C connectivity. The biggest improvement is a much smoother, more accurate scroll wheel thanks to a new Raspberry RP2040 microcontroller that resolves previous responsiveness issues. It remains open-source and boasts improved 3D printability. Unfortunately, no upgrade kit is offered for the original Classic.

(blog.ploopy.co)

Hardware

Bypassing JTAG Locks on Microchip SAM4C32 via Voltage Glitching

2025-04-02

A security researcher has discovered a voltage glitching attack that bypasses the JTAG lock on the Microchip SAM4C32 microcontroller. The attack exploits the reset pin as a side channel, injecting a voltage glitch during power-up to disable the security bit and gain unlocked JTAG access. This method may be applicable to many SAM series microcontrollers using GPNVM bits for security. The vulnerability is likely difficult to patch, posing a significant threat to devices relying on these microcontrollers.

(wiki.recessim.com)

Hardware voltage glitching

Astonishing Discrepancies: A Comparison of Acceleration Structure Memory Usage Across GPUs

2025-04-02

This article benchmarks the memory consumption of building acceleration structures (BVHs) for ray tracing across different vendor GPUs. The results reveal significant discrepancies, with the latest NVIDIA GPUs using only one-third or even one-twentieth the memory of AMD counterparts. The article delves into the internal structure of BVHs, contrasting different driver implementations and hardware architecture effects. It analyzes the BVH implementation details of AMD's RDNA2/3 and RDNA4 architectures, explaining the reasons behind the memory usage differences. Finally, the author concludes that BVH memory consumption is heavily influenced by hardware, drivers, and algorithms, and projects future improvement potential.

(zeux.io)

Hardware acceleration structure

Category: Hardware