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I really love these updates. I really appreciate your articles and they've made me go into a deep dive into the history of microchips and IC design in general.
by throaway12345 2y ago
I really love these updates. I really appreciate your articles and they've made me go into a deep dive into the history of microchips and IC design in general.
How did you get into this in the first place? From your blog I gather that you used to be in software (or still are).
- kens 2y agoHow did I get into this? It started when I saw the simulation of the 6502 processor from the Visual6502 team [1]. It was very cool, but totally mysterious. I realized that even though I was a programmer and understood the "full stack", I had no idea how a processor chip actually worked. (I'd taken computer architecture courses but there's still a big jump to physical transistors on a chip.) I started looking at the 6502's circuits and one thing led to another and here I am today, reverse-engineering obscure chips with a microscope :-) [1] http://www.visual6502.org/JSSim/index.html http://www.visual6502.org/JSSim/index.html
- throaway12345 2y agoHehehe. Maybe some day if somebody asks me "how did you get into ICs?" I'll have to answer "well, I kept reading Ken Shirriff's blog..." Also, what type of microscope do you use?
- kens 2y agoI use an AmScope ME300TZB-2L-10M metallurgical microscope that I got for cheap on eBay. My friends all have cooler microscopes :-)