3 ms·
"until pins stop wiggling"?
by paulmd 7y ago
"until pins stop wiggling"?
- xentripetal 7y agoMaybe the pins got so hot they melted into the board?
- justwalt 7y agoI think it should be “start wiggling” as that makes more sense.
- brokenmachine 7y agoWiggling pins is what a computer does when it is working.
- mmastrac 7y agoWiggling a pin - ie: toggling it. Basically means "activity on the pins" https://www.cypress.com/blog/technical/more-pdl-examples-wiggling-pins https://www.cypress.com/blog/technical/more-pdl-examples-wig...
- variaga 7y agoThe pins don't physically wiggle. "pins wiggling" is a common metaphor for "the voltage level on a pin is changing". As a signal driver is toggled at increasing frequencies ('cranking up the clock'), the signal amplitude (voltage difference between the 'high' and 'low' period) starts to drop. At a high enough frequency, the signal will be indistinguishable from noise and 'stops wiggling'.
- duskwuff 7y ago> At a high enough frequency, the signal will be indistinguishable from noise and 'stops wiggling'. It's not that the signal will be indistinguishable from noise, but that the CPU will stop working correctly, so its outputs will stop toggling (or will toggle in unexpected ways).
- kabdib 7y agoI was actually thinking about catastrophic failure, as in something on the chip burning out and making the clock stop. My guess is that they were probably cooling it with beer (or at least cold beer bottle bottoms) to get that last critical Mhz, before drinking the beer.
- numpad0 7y agoI had an impression that they might be talking what a digital I/O pin looks on oscilloscope. Scopes lock at first rising edge after last horizontal scan, so display starts at H, then drops to L after how long CPU held that pin high. That creates ￣￣l＿ lines on the screen superimposed to one another, X position “wiggling” ￣lll＿ depending on how many consecutive H bits just happened to be sent. When the CPU halts, the pin would flatline at H or L and you’ll know.
- metaphor 7y agoEuphemism for when you don't see output pins transition state on a measuring instrument, e.g. oscope.