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Hey, another Kiwi! The about section says "A UNIX-style Operating System for the Waikato RISC Architecture Microprocessor (WRAMP)". Did you study at Waikato?

Hey, another Kiwi! The about section says "A UNIX-style Operating System for the Waikato RISC Architecture Microprocessor (WRAMP)". Did you study at Waikato? I'm curious what you think about tech in general in NZ as well. Compared to the US it feels like there's practically no community :/.

tjpnz 5y ago
Another Kiwi here too. First I've ever heard of the "Waikato RISC Architecture" but am curious to learn more. I'm not the author but my view of the NZ tech sector is that it's pretty much stagnant. I ended up taking my skills elsewhere as did most of the people I remain in contact with from my UC days. It seems successive governments have put all their eggs into the agricultural export market. That's a real shame.
- ZephyrBlu 5y ago
  That's basically what I thought, but it sucks to hear that. Whereabouts did you go from NZ? I'm working remotely right now and want to leave NZ after travel opens up. Compared to other places in the world NZ seems terrible for a young, single guy in tech.
  - tjpnz 5y ago
    I went to Tokyo. Not where people typically go but it's a fun place to live. Salaries are about on par with Australia and Western Europe provided you have some experience.
- 0x90nz 5y ago
  If you want to learn more there's a website [1] for the WRAMP architecture which goes into a fair bit of detail. The manual specifically is what students are (or at least were when I was at Waikato) given as a resource to understand it. The toolchain and simulator are also available on GitHub [2], though it looks like the author has their own fork from an older version. A few years ago the the project was ported from a custom board to an off-the-shelf FPGA dev board and the simulator was renamed from "rexsim"/"RexSimulator" to "wsim", hence the difference in name. [1] https://wramp.wand.nz/ https://wramp.wand.nz/ [2] https://github.com/wandwramp https://github.com/wandwramp
  - halfer53 5y ago
    Wow, I didn't know WAND had a github page. I'll get my fork merged with the main repo in that case. The custom fork basically adds a extra button "Quick Load", since the srec file can be quite large to transfer through serial port to load, so I just implemented extra button to read srec file directly into memory.
- fennecfoxy 5y ago
  Also another kiwi: grew up in a coastal city in the North Island and moved to Auckland for uni, dropped out and started working in the industry (best decision) before eventually moving to London. Been here 3.5 years now (although I still don't know if 2020 really counts) and the tech sector is great here. Maybe not as cutting edge/well funded/as high salaries as America, but I feel like the work/life balance is better in Europe. NZ is great but I have a feeling I'll head back there once I'm a lot older; it's beautiful but there are very few opportunities when you're young.
halfer53 5y ago
OP here, Yeha I did study in Waikato. NZ is a very small market compared to the rest of the world, so there is a lot less opportunities here in NZ in terms of number of startups and number of tech firms. The salary is also lower compared to other developed countries. Any software engineer in NZ can easily get a 30-50% salary raise by going to Australia. A lot of talents ran away from NZ because of this. There are still some exiting companies, for instance, Serko whom I am currently working for is expanding into the international market to seize the post-pandemic opportunities. But overall it's bit stagnant compared to other OECD countries.
- solarengineer 5y ago
  Given that many want to work remote, the good things we hear about New Zealand, how difficult it is to get in, and that Billionaires are reserving space to prepare for Climate change related risks elsewhere, I was under the impression that people would want to get to NZ and stay put there. This is the sentiment among some of the people I talk to.
  - fm2606 5y ago
    This was my thought as well.
  - halfer53 5y ago
    True, agree NZ is a great place to work. In fact, I quite enjoy my lockdown-free life in NZ.
  - ZephyrBlu 5y ago
    If I had already established a career and wanted to settle down I'd probably like NZ more, but I feel like I'm missing out by being in NZ compared to somewhere more populous like the US or Europe. How old are the people you're talking to? For reference, I'm 23 and just started my career.
  - bibabaloo 5y ago
    It's a beautiful country but because of the small population there's a lack of opportunities, especially compared to the US or even Australia. The time zone makes remote work difficult too.
airbreather 5y ago
I grew up in Hamilton, Waikato, until high school when my family moved to Australia. My Dad taught math at the teachers college and my Mother worked at the University as a faculty secretary, so I was in and amongst University life. I sometimes wonder what it would have been like if I had stayed and gone to Uni there.

tjpnz 5y ago

Another Kiwi here too. First I've ever heard of the "Waikato RISC Architecture" but am curious to learn more. I'm not the author but my view of the NZ tech sector is that it's pretty much stagnant. I ended up taking my skills elsewhere as did most of the people I remain in contact with from my UC days. It seems successive governments have put all their eggs into the agricultural export market. That's a real shame.

ZephyrBlu 5y ago
That's basically what I thought, but it sucks to hear that. Whereabouts did you go from NZ? I'm working remotely right now and want to leave NZ after travel opens up. Compared to other places in the world NZ seems terrible for a young, single guy in tech.
- tjpnz 5y ago
  I went to Tokyo. Not where people typically go but it's a fun place to live. Salaries are about on par with Australia and Western Europe provided you have some experience.
0x90nz 5y ago
If you want to learn more there's a website [1] for the WRAMP architecture which goes into a fair bit of detail. The manual specifically is what students are (or at least were when I was at Waikato) given as a resource to understand it. The toolchain and simulator are also available on GitHub [2], though it looks like the author has their own fork from an older version. A few years ago the the project was ported from a custom board to an off-the-shelf FPGA dev board and the simulator was renamed from "rexsim"/"RexSimulator" to "wsim", hence the difference in name. [1] https://wramp.wand.nz/ https://wramp.wand.nz/ [2] https://github.com/wandwramp https://github.com/wandwramp
- halfer53 5y ago
  Wow, I didn't know WAND had a github page. I'll get my fork merged with the main repo in that case. The custom fork basically adds a extra button "Quick Load", since the srec file can be quite large to transfer through serial port to load, so I just implemented extra button to read srec file directly into memory.
fennecfoxy 5y ago
Also another kiwi: grew up in a coastal city in the North Island and moved to Auckland for uni, dropped out and started working in the industry (best decision) before eventually moving to London. Been here 3.5 years now (although I still don't know if 2020 really counts) and the tech sector is great here. Maybe not as cutting edge/well funded/as high salaries as America, but I feel like the work/life balance is better in Europe. NZ is great but I have a feeling I'll head back there once I'm a lot older; it's beautiful but there are very few opportunities when you're young.

halfer53 5y ago

OP here, Yeha I did study in Waikato. NZ is a very small market compared to the rest of the world, so there is a lot less opportunities here in NZ in terms of number of startups and number of tech firms. The salary is also lower compared to other developed countries. Any software engineer in NZ can easily get a 30-50% salary raise by going to Australia. A lot of talents ran away from NZ because of this. There are still some exiting companies, for instance, Serko whom I am currently working for is expanding into the international market to seize the post-pandemic opportunities. But overall it's bit stagnant compared to other OECD countries.

solarengineer 5y ago
Given that many want to work remote, the good things we hear about New Zealand, how difficult it is to get in, and that Billionaires are reserving space to prepare for Climate change related risks elsewhere, I was under the impression that people would want to get to NZ and stay put there. This is the sentiment among some of the people I talk to.
- fm2606 5y ago
  This was my thought as well.
- halfer53 5y ago
  True, agree NZ is a great place to work. In fact, I quite enjoy my lockdown-free life in NZ.
- ZephyrBlu 5y ago
  If I had already established a career and wanted to settle down I'd probably like NZ more, but I feel like I'm missing out by being in NZ compared to somewhere more populous like the US or Europe. How old are the people you're talking to? For reference, I'm 23 and just started my career.
- bibabaloo 5y ago
  It's a beautiful country but because of the small population there's a lack of opportunities, especially compared to the US or even Australia. The time zone makes remote work difficult too.

airbreather 5y ago

I grew up in Hamilton, Waikato, until high school when my family moved to Australia. My Dad taught math at the teachers college and my Mother worked at the University as a faculty secretary, so I was in and amongst University life. I sometimes wonder what it would have been like if I had stayed and gone to Uni there.