Topic for #homecmos is now Homebrew CMOS and MEMS foundry design | http://code.google.com/p/homecmos/ | Logs: http://en.qi-hardware.com/homecmos-logs/
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<Sync> blargh
<Sync> NaCl windows suck.
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<Sync> and yay free CF parts
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<Sync> bah. everything is cursted in salt
<Sync> *raises fist*
<azonenberg> NaCl windows?
<Sync> yes
<azonenberg> for what
<Sync> some kind of spectrometer
<azonenberg> o_O
<azonenberg> Sounds annoying
<Sync> yeah
<Sync> made a fucking mess
<Sync> and killed the gold mirrors
<azonenberg> In normal use was the instrument kept in an anhydrous environment?
<Sync> probably
<azonenberg> or sealed and purged?
<Sync> or just moisture controlled enough so that it was no problem
<azonenberg> yeah, i just mean in normal room area in a lab environment
<azonenberg> there is some H2O
<azonenberg> and we all know how hygroscopic NaCl is...
<Sync> I'm not really sure how you'd used that thing
<Sync> it has no option to mount it
<Sync> but it had two slightly angeled NaCl windows
<Sync> with a nacl beamsplitter in it
<Sync> and another one mounted on a galvo
<Sync> and two concave gold coated mirrors on top and bottom
<Sync> but it had a triax CF feedthrough, CF thermovac tube and needle valve
<Sync> and it says Spectra-Physics
<Sync> haha I just realized what the small conglomerate of pumps in the corner is worth
<azonenberg> lol what/
<azonenberg> what? *
<azonenberg> pleast dont say you have half a million dollars of turbopumps sitting around like trash
<Sync> well
<Sync> you'd get a nice car for the price you'd pay if you would get them new
<azonenberg> Lol
<azonenberg> good turbopumps are not cheap
<azonenberg> make that "turbopumps in general are not cheap" lol
<Sync> the turbo is not the most expensive one
<Sync> the XDS10 is around 5k new
<azonenberg> what species is that?
<azonenberg> dont know the model
<Sync> it is a dry scroll pump
<azonenberg> oh nice
<Sync> bah
<Sync> I need to stop buying stuff.
<azonenberg> lol
<Sync> for real
<azonenberg> i need to stop designing board C
<azonenberg> before i've even assembled board B
<Sync> yeah
<Sync> I know the problem
<Sync> but I guess I have enough pumps now
<Sync> one for everything I could need
<azonenberg> My problem is that A is running near capacity
<azonenberg> and I need C because B was just a test
<Sync> o.0
<azonenberg> But i can't finish designing C until i assemble B and get data from it :P
<Sync> deadlock.
<azonenberg> It's not a deadlock, the solution is to assemble and test B first
<Sync> I need to do some work on my glass - metal seals
<azonenberg> then finish designing C with what i find
<azonenberg> But that means grading this massive pile of exams first :p
<Sync> yeah
<Sync> same problem here
<Sync> but I'm currently less than ever motivated to learn
<azonenberg> i hate class, lab is so much more fun
<Sync> oh F
<Sync> that reminds me
<Sync> I need to kick my lab partners in their asses
* azonenberg sees grade of 30% on homework 4 in numerical computing
<azonenberg> this class is killing me but its too late to drop
<Sync> I think I'll leave maths 3 maths 3 this semester
<azonenberg> i simply have no interest in this class
<Sync> ^
<azonenberg> i have not touched a floating-point number outside that class in like a year
<azonenberg> it's of no use to me
<azonenberg> all of my code is integer based
<Sync> I usually make generous use of floats
<Sync> but just because I'm a lazy coder
<azonenberg> All of the conversion from binary to decimal to run that display
<azonenberg> is done entirely in fixed point with no loss of precision
<azonenberg> at one point i multiply by 1.25
<azonenberg> so to do that i simply do X + (X << 2) and declare the radix point to have moved two bits to the right
<azonenberg> just integer arithmetic and bitshifts
<Sync> yeah I am too lazy to think about that.
<Sync> :D
<azonenberg> this is hardware, though
<azonenberg> a FPU uses a lot of gates
<azonenberg> but a bitshift by a constant is just a couple of wires
<azonenberg> and addition is easy
<azonenberg> integer addition that is
<azonenberg> compared to a floating point multiplier...
<Sync> yean that is true on fpgas
<azonenberg> i dont want to even think about implementing IEEE754 any time soon
<azonenberg> i will do so at some point because i will need to add it to my CPU eventually
<azonenberg> and because I dont want to use the xilinx IP cores since they arent open source
<azonenberg> (though they are free as in beer)
<Sync> I could not wrap my head around verilog when I had to use it
<azonenberg> lol it seems like the most natural thing in the world to me
<azonenberg> when i see HDL i immediately think of it synthesizing into muxes and gates
<azonenberg> and it just makes sense
<Sync> that was not the issue
<Sync> but making it synthesize somehow never worked
<Sync> just simulated just fine
<azonenberg> you mean your code didnt compile or you couldnt figure out how to write it?
<azonenberg> oh
<azonenberg> were you maybe using simulation-only constructs like delays by unit time?
<azonenberg> there's no physical way to say "wait 5ns and then set this high"
<Sync> nope
<azonenberg> Do you remember the synthesis problem>
<azonenberg> ?
<Sync> the next issue was that I did not manage to connect modules
<Sync> not really, that was in 11th grade in HS
<azonenberg> Lol oh, you started younger than me
<azonenberg> when i was that age i was doing x86 asm
<azonenberg> only got into FPGAs... must have been the summer between junior and senior year of college
<azonenberg> or no
<azonenberg> it was after senior year and before starting grad school i think
<Sync> I'm not much of a software guy
<Sync> I do enjoy confusing people with analog wonkeyness
<azonenberg> Analog stuff scares me, i live in the land of 1s and 0s lol
<azonenberg> I'm doing better in my non-major class than my major class this semester
<azonenberg> Electron Microscopy of Materials i'm currently in a streak of four perfect lab grades in a row out of five (lost two points on the first)
<Sync> lab is not graded here
<azonenberg> lab reports i mean
<azonenberg> but i'm consistently B-range in my math/CS class
<azonenberg> because, quite honestly, i don't care
<Sync> we do not write lab reports
<azonenberg> Which is a problem considering that it's a required class :P
<Sync> yeah I know the problem all too well
<Sync> wee the galvo is neat :)
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