Hacker News with Generative AI: Computer Hardware

100x defect tolerance: How we solved the yield problem (cerebras.ai)
Conventional wisdom in semiconductor manufacturing has long held that bigger chips mean worse yields. Yet at Cerebras, we’ve successfully built and commercialized a chip 50x larger than the largest computer chips – and achieved comparable yields.
Semiconductors, Manufacturing, Artificial Intelligence, Computer Hardware, Yield
328 points by jwan584 2 days ago | 174 comments
Debugging: Indispensable rules for finding even the most elusive problems (2004) (dwheeler.com)
It's not often you find a classic, but I think I've found a new classic for software and computer hardware developers.
Software Development, Debugging, Programming, Computer Hardware
524 points by omkar-foss 5 days ago | 225 comments
The Missing Nvidia GPU Glossary (modal.com)
We wrote this glossary to solve a problem we ran into working with GPUs here at Modal: the documentation is fragmented, making it difficult to connect concepts at different levels of the stack, like Streaming Multiprocessor Architecture, Compute Capability, and nvcc compiler flags.
Nvidia GPUs, Documentation, Glossary, Computer Hardware
227 points by birdculture 5 days ago | 70 comments
FreeBSD Suspend/Resume (wordpress.com)
I have been using FreeBSD on the desktops/laptops since about 20 years now and I have described all that I configured in the FreeBSD Desktop series.
FreeBSD, Operating Systems, Computer Hardware
136 points by vermaden 7 days ago | 63 comments
Dell will no longer make XPS computers (arstechnica.com)
Dell won't make Precision or Inspiron PCs anymore, either.
Dell, Laptops, Computer Hardware, Technology
77 points by MRPockets 11 days ago | 110 comments
My favourite computer ergonomics hack (jacobvosmaer.nl)
In this post I will talk about my favourite computer ergonomics hack, a DIY device I call "The Beeper".
Ergonomics, DIY, Computer Hardware
236 points by vortex_ape 16 days ago | 71 comments
The DEC VT220 – Design excellence from 1984 [video] (youtube.com)
Computer Hardware, Retro Technology, Design, Video
7 points by rbanffy 18 days ago | 0 comments
I helped fix sleep-wake hangs on Linux with AMD GPUs (gitlab.io)
I dual-boot my desktop between Windows and Linux. Over the past few years, Linux would often crash when I tried to sleep my computer with high RAM usage. Upon waking it would show a black screen with moving cursor, or enter a "vegetative" state with no image on-screen, only responding to magic SysRq or a hard reset. I traced this behavior to an amdgpu driver power/memory management bug, which took over a year to brainstorm and implement solutions for.
Linux, AMD, Computer Hardware, Bug Fixes, Open Source
9 points by LorenDB 19 days ago | 1 comments
Are PC hardware companies driving technology into restricted closed ecosystems? (scottrlarson.com)
I am a Computer Hardware professional. I started working with computer technology in the early eighties. I have seen the evolution of technology starting with closed platforms like the game console era and then the move toward open platforms like the Home Computer Golden Age. In the last 5 or 10 years, I have witnessed technology changes that are slowly moving away from open hardware designs towards hardware that is locked down and can’t be modified by the user.
Computer Hardware, Technology, Open Source, Closed Systems, Industry Trends
209 points by trinsic2 19 days ago | 156 comments
The RAM Myth (purplesyringa.moe)
The RAM myth is a belief that modern computer memory resembles perfect random-access memory.
Computer Hardware, Technology, Misconceptions
196 points by signa11 30 days ago | 165 comments
The Power Mac 4400 (512pixels.net)
In November 1996, Apple released the Power Macintosh 4400 with a starting price of $1,725. Also sold as the Power Macintosh 7220, it’d be easy to write this machine off as just another grain of sand on the beige beach that was Apple’s product line in the 1990s.
Apple, Computer Hardware, Retro Computing, Technology History
114 points by speckx 32 days ago | 150 comments
Fujitsu 144-core Arm chip: 2nm and 5nm chiplet, 3D-stacked CPU cores over memory (tomshardware.com)
Computer Hardware, ARM, Chipsets, Processors, Memory
7 points by ksec 35 days ago | 0 comments
The Pentium FDIV bug, reverse-engineered (oldbytes.space)
Computer Hardware, Reverse Engineering, Security
213 points by croes 37 days ago | 51 comments
Valve dev fixes 3D lighting, exposes flawed graphics card math (pcgamer.com)
Gaming, Computer Hardware, Graphics, Software Development
11 points by xbmcuser 44 days ago | 2 comments
My new POWER Indigo 2 (thejpster.org.uk)
On Mastodon, I recently came across a post by Kestral, with a link to their website:
Computer Hardware, Social Media, Web Design
89 points by ingve 56 days ago | 40 comments
DIMM vs. Udimm vs. Rdimm vs. Sodimm vs. Cudimm: What's the Difference? (corsair.com)
It’s fair to say that there’s plenty of jargon around computer memory.
Computer Hardware, RAM, Memory, Technology, Comparison
63 points by trelane 62 days ago | 14 comments
Apple drops soldered storage for 2024 Mac Mini (theregister.com)
Apple's Mac Mini product line has been around for a while, and the latest model was launched this month, replete with M4 or M4 Pro chips. It is significantly smaller than its predecessors with Thunderbolt, HDMI, and Ethernet ports on the back and a pair of USB-C ports and a 3.5 mm headphone jack on the front.
Apple, Hardware, Consumer Electronics, Computer Hardware
37 points by lisper 65 days ago | 11 comments
RISC-V Motherboard for Framework 13 Pricing Starts at $368 in Early Access (phoronix.com)
Framework Computer has been promoting a RISC-V motherboard option for their Framework Laptop 13 to complement their existing Intel Core and AMD Ryzen motherboard options.
RISC-V, Hardware, Laptops, Computer Hardware, Open Source
8 points by rbanffy 66 days ago | 3 comments
UserBenchmark suggests you buy the i5-13600K over the Ryzen 7 9800X3D (tomshardware.com)
Computer Hardware, Processors, Benchmarking, Performance
3 points by LorenDB 68 days ago | 1 comments
The Difference Between a Standard DIMM and a Cudimm or Csodimm (servethehome.com)
We probably need to have one of these. Recently, memory makers started to take a technology that we have seen for years on the server side, and bring it to the desktop and mobile platforms. The CUDIMM or CSODIMM adds a “C” for clocked, and with it comes some new hardware.
Computer Hardware, Memory, Technology, DIMM
39 points by rbanffy 68 days ago | 10 comments
A Brief History of Cyrix (abortretry.fail)
Tom Brightman and Jerry Rogers were working for Texas Instruments in the second half of the 1980s.
History, Processors, Computer Hardware
98 points by zdw 75 days ago | 18 comments
Apple Introduces M4 Pro and M4 Max (apple.com)
Apple today announced M4 Pro and M4 Max, two new chips that — along with M4 — bring far more power-efficient performance and advanced capabilities to the Mac.
Apple, New Products, Processors, Computer Hardware, Mac
91 points by griffinli 80 days ago | 41 comments
Wafer Scale – Trilogy Systems: Part 2 (thechipletter.substack.com)
In Part 1 we saw how Trilogy Systems was founded by Gene Amdahl in 1979 and went on to raise over $275m (c$830m in 2024 dollars) in funding to build ‘IBM plug-compatible’ mainframes. In 1983, the company revealed the ‘breakthrough’ technology it would use to overtake IBM: Wafer-Scale Integration. In place of the modules IBM used in its mainframes, each with 100 smaller chips and other components, Trilogy would use complete 2.5-inch silicon wafers.
Technology, History, Computer Hardware, Semiconductors
15 points by klelatti 83 days ago | 1 comments
Cerebras Trains Llama Models to Leap over GPUs (nextplatform.com)
It was only a few months ago when waferscale compute pioneer Cerebras Systems was bragging that a handful of its WSE-3 engines lashed together could run circles around Nvidia GPU instances based on Nvidia’s “Hopper” H100 GPUs when running the open source Llama 3.1 foundation model created by Meta Platforms.
Artificial Intelligence, Computer Hardware, Performance Comparison
63 points by rbanffy 83 days ago | 33 comments
Raspberry Pi release higher performance AI HAT+ – 13 and 26 TOPS variants (tomshardware.com)
Raspberry Pi, AI Hardware, Computer Hardware, Embedded Systems
5 points by marban 86 days ago | 0 comments
How DRAM changed the world (micron.com)
Robert Dennard, an influential American electrical engineer, invented the one-transistor memory cell for dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) in 1966.
Technology, History, Computer Hardware, Memory
136 points by sandwichsphinx 87 days ago | 117 comments
AI engineers claim new algorithm reduces AI power consumption by 95% (tomshardware.com)
Artificial Intelligence, Energy Efficiency, Computer Hardware
370 points by ferriswil 90 days ago | 170 comments
Refurb weekend: the Symbolics MacIvory Lisp machine I have hated (blogspot.com)
Every collector has that machine, the machine they sunk so much time and, often, money into that they would have defenestrated it years ago except for all the aforementioned time and money.
Retrocomputing, Personal Computing, History, Computer Hardware, Lisp
182 points by rcarmo 97 days ago | 99 comments
Could we build a computer designed to last at least fifty years? (2021) (ploum.net)
Could we build a computer designed to last at least fifty years?
Computer Hardware, Technology, Sustainability, Longevity
152 points by andai 103 days ago | 127 comments
Zero-Shot Text Classification on a low-end CPU-only machine? (ycombinator.com)
I want to do zero-shot text classification either with the model [1] (711 MB) or with something similar. Want to achieve high throughput in classification requests per second.
Text Classification, Machine Learning, Computer Hardware, Performance Optimization
8 points by backend-dev-33 104 days ago | 12 comments