IBM paperweight teardown: Reverse-engineering 1970s memory chips
#406 — February 08, 2021 | View in browser |
Programming Digest
Spread the word, build the community, share the knowledge – invite your friends.
sponsor
Learn about SRE with Nathen Harvey from Google and Jamie Dobson from Container Solutions
WTF is SRE? It’s about what risks you can take and which trade-offs to make between developer velocity, system stability, technical debt and risk taking. Container Solutions presents a new WTFinar that tackles the beginning of understanding SRE. Join Nathen Harvey from Google to learn about service level indicators (SLIs) and service level objectives (SLOs) - components of error budgets. 9th February, 15:00 CET
this week's favorite
IBM paperweight teardown: Reverse-engineering 1970s memory chips
I recently received a vintage IBM paperweight from the early 1970s that showcases some memory chips.1 When IBM started using integrated circuits in the late 1960s, they packed the chips in square metal modules called Monolithic Systems Technology (MST). The paperweight illustrates the manufacturing steps for an MST module as a silicon wafer was cut into silicon dies, mounted on a square ceramic substrate, and wrapped in a thumbnail-sized metal package.
There are approximately 7.5x10^18 grains of sand on Earth. This story is about finding changes in an equation that has a difference of approximately 1e-18 out of hundreds of billions of calculations. That is 7 grains of sand that are different to what we expect across the entire planet Earth.
A Philosophy of Software Design
I believe the book we should be recommending is A Philosophy of Software Design by John Ousterhout. In this post I want to spend a bit of time reviewing it and giving an overview of the contents, and then I want to explain why, in my opinion, it is such a good recommendation.
JavaScript Algorithms and Data Structures
This repository contains JavaScript based examples of many popular algorithms and data structures (trees, graphs, bloom filter, ...). Each algorithm and data structure has its own separate README with related explanations and links for further reading.
Systems design explains the world
"Systems design" is a branch of study that tries to find universal architectural patterns that are valid across disciplines. You might think that's not a possibility. Back in university, students used to tease the Systems Design Engineers, calling it "boxes and arrows" engineering. Not real engineering, you see, since it didn't touch anything tangible, like buildings, motors, hydrochloric acid, or, uh, electrons.
newsletters
Older messages
Software development topics I've changed my mind on
Sunday, January 31, 2021
And more news, tutorials and articles about programming and technology in this week's issue. #405 — February 01, 2021 View in browser Programming Digest Spread the word, build the community, share
Design Patterns Explained with Food 🥕
Sunday, January 24, 2021
And more news, tutorials and articles about programming and technology in this week's issue. #404 — January 25, 2021 View in browser Programming Digest Spread the word, build the community, share
State machines are wonderful tools
Sunday, January 17, 2021
And more news, tutorials and articles about programming and technology in this week's issue. #403 — January 18, 2021 View in browser Programming Digest Spread the word, build the community, share
“A damn stupid thing to do”—the origins of C
Sunday, January 10, 2021
And more news, tutorials and articles about programming and technology in this week's issue. #402 — January 11, 2021 View in browser Programming Digest Spread the word, build the community, share
The Big Little Guide to Message Queues
Sunday, January 3, 2021
And more news, tutorials and articles about programming and technology in this week's issue. #401 — January 04, 2021 View in browser Programming Digest Spread the word, build the community, share
You Might Also Like
The clock’s ticking for TikTok
Wednesday, April 24, 2024
The US Senate has passed a bill that would ban TikTok if its US business is not divested by Bytedance View this email online in your browser By Alex Wilhelm Wednesday, April 24, 2024 Good morning, and
How to block Windows 11 Start menu ads
Wednesday, April 24, 2024
Oura Ring hits Target; 7 iPad Pro features we need; AI hallucinations aren't all bad -- ZDNET ZDNET Tech Today - US April 24, 2024 placeholder Microsoft is now showing ads in Windows 11's Start
The Chilling of TikTok
Wednesday, April 24, 2024
Ban or not, this is the end of TikTok as we know it The Chilling of TikTok By MG Siegler • 24 Apr 2024 View in browser View in browser The tok is tiking... Later today, President Biden will sign a bill
GenAI is transforming materials design
Wednesday, April 24, 2024
⚙️ Meta Smart Glasses
Wednesday, April 24, 2024
Plus: $3B valuation for AI startup
Endpoint Security Tips Curated by Experts - Get This Guide Now
Wednesday, April 24, 2024
Endpoint Security Tips Curated by Experts Hey there, It's no secret that endpoints are prime targets for hackers—so how can you defend them better? Well, we have some suggestions for where you can
Senate passes the bill that could ban TikTok
Wednesday, April 24, 2024
The Morning After It's Wednesday, April 24, 2024. The Senate approved a measure that will require ByteDance to sell TikTok or face a ban, in a vote of 79 to 18. The Protecting Americans from
[Incubator] Dates for our next Student Orientation and Demo Day
Wednesday, April 24, 2024
Also, here's the link to our last student demo day.
Warning: Security Flaws Exposed Keystrokes of Over 1 Billion Chinese Keyboard App Users
Wednesday, April 24, 2024
THN Daily Updates Newsletter cover Webinar -- Uncovering Contemporary DDoS Attack Tactics -- and How to Fight Back Stop DDoS Attacks Before They Stop Your Business... and Make You Headline News.
Post from Syncfusion Blogs on 04/24/2024
Wednesday, April 24, 2024
New blogs from Syncfusion What's New in React Query Builder: 2024 Volume 1 By Satheeskumar S This blog explores the new features added to the Syncfusion React Query Builder in the 2024 Volume 1