7 ms·
A History of Early Microcontrollers, Part 1: Calculator Chips Came First (2022)
- colinprince 2y agoAlso loved this: https://technicshistory.com/2024/11/03/a-craving-for-calculation/ https://technicshistory.com/2024/11/03/a-craving-for-calcula...
- uticus 2y agovery nice. > As the number of components in circuits grew, the number of manufacturing steps also grew, and manufacturing error rates multiplied—a device with one thousand components, each of which a skilled worker could connect with 99.9% reliability, had a 63% chance of having at least one defective connection. The search for an end to this “tyranny of numbers” drove many research projects in the late 1950s, most of them funded by the various arms of the United States military, all of whom foresaw an unending appetite for ever-more-sophisticated electronics to control their weaponry and defense systems. The military-funded projects included “micro-modules” (individual components that would snap together like tinkertoys), “microcircuits” (wires and passive components etched onto a ceramic substrate into which active components, like transistors, could be connected), and “molecular electronics” (nanotechnology avant la lettre).[3]
- userbinator 2y ago“microcircuits” (wires and passive components etched onto a ceramic substrate into which active components, like transistors, could be connected) That eventually became a common construction technique for automotive electronics: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thick-film_technology https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thick-film_technology
- klelatti 2y agoMay also be of interest on this topic: https://thechipletter.substack.com/p/tiny-computers-from-texas https://thechipletter.substack.com/p/tiny-computers-from-tex...
- jgalt212 2y ago[flagged]
- klelatti 2y agoFrom the HM guidelines > Please don't post shallow dismissals, especially of other people's work.
- jgalt212 2y agoIt wasn't shallow, and I took the to read what someone else posted, and I'm reasonably sure it was AI Slop. So if it's AI Slop, is it really another person's work?
- klelatti 2y agoI’m genuinely interested in why you think this particular post is ‘AI slop’.
- gavindean90 2y agoSeems like it’s just because the author used the word delve which the use of has been linked to AI writing. Pretty flimsy evidence though, maybe the surgery really does like the word.
- klelatti 2y agoThank you! I had no idea. By the way, the post definitely isn't AI—whether it's 'slop' is a matter of opinion, of course.
- klelatti 2y agoI see you’ve chosen not to reply to this question so FYI this article was not AI generated in any way.
- 2y ago
- userbinator 2y agoThe very first computers also essentially started as programmable calculators.