Hacker News with Generative AI: Computing

The Nvidia DGX Spark Is a Tiny 128GB AI Mini PC Made for Scale-Out Clustering (servethehome.com)
With 20 Arm cores connected using C2C to a Blackwell generation GPU, 128GB of LPDDR5X memory, and 200GbE NVIDIA ConnectX-7 networking, the NVIDIA DGX Spark is exciting. At $3999 it is far from cheap. On the other hand, we expect folks to create the most awesome clusters with this.
Nvidia GPU roadmap confirms it: Moore's Law is dead and buried (theregister.com)
As Jensen Huang is fond of saying, Moore's Law is dead – and at Nvidia GTC this month, the GPU-slinger's chief exec let slip just how deep in the ground the computational scaling law really is.
Thinner Films Conduct Better Than Copper (ieee.org)
Future chips need something better than copper. Are topological semimetals the answer?
Angelina Jolie Was Right About Computers (wired.com)
“RISC architecture is gonna change everything.” Those absurdly geeky, incredibly prophetic words were spoken 30 years ago. Today, they’re somehow truer than ever.
Post Apocalyptic Computing (thomashunter.name)
In a world increasingly dominated by planned obsolescence and disposable technology, the idea of a general-purpose computing machine designed to last a century feels both radical and necessary.
Making the Arithmometer Count (ox.ac.uk)
The arithmometer of Charles Xavier Thomas de Colmar (1785-1870) has a firmly established place in the history of computing.
A single-fibre computer enables textile networks and distributed inference (nature.com)
Despite advancements in wearable technologies1,2, barriers remain in achieving distributed computation located persistently on the human body. Here a textile fibre computer that monolithically combines analogue sensing, digital memory, processing and communication in a mass of less than 5 g is presented.
Digital Hygiene (bearblog.dev)
Every now and then I get reminded about the vast fraud apparatus of the internet, re-invigorating my pursuit of basic digital hygiene around privacy/security of day to day computing.
Digital Hygiene (bearblog.dev)
Every now and then I get reminded about the vast fraud apparatus of the internet, re-invigorating my pursuit of basic digital hygiene around privacy/security of day to day computing.
Ask HN: I have excess compute, how can I contribute positively to the Internet? (ycombinator.com)
I have excess compute and bandwidth capacity and thought it would be a great opportunity to contribute positively to the Internet and the broader community.
Hackintoshing as a sustainable environmental practice (medium.com)
In 2025 using Linux or a Hackintosh is a very sustainable practice in computing, because you are able to use hardware longer.
50 years ago - Altair 8800 The most powerful minicomputer project ever presented (archive.org)
Ask the publishers to restore access to 500,000+ books.
Apple introduces iPad Air with powerful M3 chip and new Magic Keyboard (apple.com)
First "Synthetic Biological Intelligence" runs on living human cells (newatlas.com)
The world's first "biological computer" that fuses human brain cells with silicon hardware to form fluid neural networks has been commercially launched, ushering in a new age of AI technology.
Is an Intel N100 a better value than a Raspberry Pi? (jeffgeerling.com)
About one year ago, I bought an Intel N100 mini PC (specifically the GMKtec N100 NucBox G3) and compared it to the Raspberry Pi 5 8GB.
The IBM 650: An appreciation from the field (1986) [pdf] (ed-thelen.org)
From ACS to Altair: The Rise of the Hobby Computer (technicshistory.com)
The Altair’s surprising power derived ultimately from the nerve of MITS founder Ed Roberts.
Number-Colour-Phoneme Associations: From IBM CGA Colours to Mnemonic Systems (susam.net)
This is a vanity page that records some of the associations between various numbers, colours, and phonemes as they appear in my mind. I must mention here that I do not have synaesthesia. Many of these connections were shaped by childhood experiences. Notably, two unrelated influences, learning about computers and studying mnemonic systems, have played a significant role in forming these associations.
AI can decode digital data stored in DNA in minutes instead of days (newscientist.com)
Artificial intelligence can read data stored in DNA strands within 10 minutes rather than the days required for previous methods, bringing DNA storage closer to practical use in computing.
Advertisements of Unix and its technologies from 1984-1998 (m4c.pl)
The 1980s and 1990s were a period of rapid technological advancement, during which UNIX systems and UNIX-based technologies played a significant role in shaping modern computing solutions.
Tristan Davey's Punch Card Archive (tristandavey.com)
Punched cards were once a ubiquitous part of accounting, data collection and early computing.
Back to the Future with Gordon Moore (thechipletter.substack.com)
Sometimes the whole world can change in a weekend. It certainly seems that way today as the most recent DeepSeek models have apparently upended the whole ‘AI industrial complex’.
Work at the Mill: The story of Digital Equipment Corporation (abortretry.fail)
Kenneth Harry Olsen was born on the 20th of February in 1926 in Bridgeport, Connecticut, and he grew up in nearby Stratford.
HP's Z2 Mini G1a packs more power into a mini PC than you'd ever need (pcworld.com)
You probably haven’t seen HP’s Z series of computers unless you’re working in an office with some “big iron,” packed with high-end hardware and specialized designs. But HP’s new Z2 Mini G1a, shown off at a pre-CES presentation, caught my attention in a big way. It’s a mini desktop PC with some of the most powerful parts available.
RISC-V Mainboard for Framework Laptop 13 is now available (frame.work)
We’re happy to share that DeepComputing’s DC-ROMA RISC-V Mainboard for Framework Laptop 13 is now in stock and shipping in the Framework Marketplace.
Colossus, the first large-scale electronic computer (colossus-computer.com)
Integrated magneto-optics with ultra-high endurance for photonic inmem computing (nature.com)
Processing information in the optical domain promises advantages in both speed and energy efficiency over existing digital hardware for a variety of emerging applications in artificial intelligence and machine learning.
Analyst firm say DeepSeek has 50000 Nvidia GPUs and spent US $6B on buildouts (tomshardware.com)
Zusie – My Relay Computer (nablaman.com)
I amuse myself by constructing a computer almost entirely out of relays.
Any Key (wikipedia.org)
In computing, "Press any key to continue" (or a similar text) was a historically used prompt to the user when it was necessary to pause processing.