asciilifeform: !Q later tell phf turns out i was wrong re the rom, the rom-shaped object is actually a 1980s 'programmable event timer' thingie, am2971adc☟︎☟︎
asciilifeform: mircea_popescu: for the obj reason, who else takes 'me, me, me' mug shot with 0 particular reason
asciilifeform: ( tho what asciilifeform most direly lacks, is the ~time~, hence open to the idea of another pair of hands doing it. just, would MUCH rather it be l1 hands than some ??? folk )
asciilifeform: if i end up doing the job with own hands, it'll be with mircea_popescu's method, i dun have electron microscope or the floor space to erect one
asciilifeform: either it or electron is the ticket, aha
asciilifeform: (so developing entire process for 1um dies, prolly not worth the candles)
asciilifeform: 'ivory' is somewhat unique case, imho, i dun expect to ever run across another 1980s item that even begins to merit this treatment.
asciilifeform: slight overkill, but ~guaranteed detail.
asciilifeform: if this were a moneyed proj, i'd go straight to the electronists
asciilifeform: ( you'd want to test system on sumthing with comparable 'micronicity' )
asciilifeform: z80 is a much larger-featured item, so not directly applicable. 386/486 is the ticket.
asciilifeform: in a hypothetical peacetime when asciilifeform'd have free hands to do this personally, would start with a crate of less-rare contemporary 1uM die (e.g. 386) 1st
asciilifeform: hence 'they're nonrenewable, d00d, measure not 7 but 7777 times before cutting 1ce'
asciilifeform: BingoBoingo: i for instance prolly good for three or four hangings, simply on what's in the l0gz☟︎
asciilifeform: BingoBoingo: as mircea_popescu is quite fond of pointing out, they can shoot these any time they like , by 'oops wrong address for swat'; no particular need for oddball new fatwas for that
asciilifeform: the mechanics of use is actually 'easy part' -- they take x11 pipe over tcp, and are pretty light on graphics (1bit raster)
asciilifeform: ( for n00bz -- racking an actual bolix is afaik a nonstarter -- the remaining units lack not only the requisite 24/7 reliability / component life , but also any means to cleanly wash the whore between customers, the way i do with e.g rk )
asciilifeform: phf: imho the ultimate bolix caper would be to rack a coupla working clones at pizarro & rent'em out. but admittedly this is , presently, nearly as far as the moon☟︎
asciilifeform: ( iirc they contain bringup microcoad )
asciilifeform: i also suspect that this experiment will need the contents of whatever's in those roms on the ivory3
asciilifeform: phf: i'm hoping i dun have to wait another full year for those docs...
asciilifeform: i also suspect that there is coad that won't work without ~cycle-accurate~ copy of the cpu ( the periodic barfage of the 'official' emulator suggests this -- did they use empty loop delays in place of mutexes, or what, i do not yet know )
asciilifeform: ( there could, for instance, be instructions in the physical device that bolix never had a chance to use in os, but exist in some last-days userland proggy like ns etc )
asciilifeform: phf: tho imho ideally, we'd still get a decap of #2 after #1 is happily in a ersatz-ivory board and booting the full archaeological soft stack
asciilifeform: it's right about on the borderline of what can be done with that instrument
asciilifeform: and 1uM was just about the last process where optical microscopy yields anyffin☟︎
asciilifeform: ( for n00bz -- decapping, even if done perfectly, is irreversible process, we dun know how many layers even in ivory, and to take pic of n+1st layer gotta dissolve the n-th... )
asciilifeform: if this were any other ic, i'd say 'gift horse', but in this case 'sapper errs once' ( or , i suppose, twice.. )
asciilifeform: ( none of the listed items seems to be even a 2uM, much less 1 )
asciilifeform: also that signetics is iirc a 3.5uM process. i dunno if he ever did a 1uM die
asciilifeform: http://www.seanriddle.com/sc1die.html << suggests that this is the case, the link to 'Here's a 17436x15128 pixel version (HD View on another server)' goes to some microshit site that doesn't actually load for me☟︎☟︎
asciilifeform: the die shots on the linked page look decent, but not high res enuff to actually work from ( is he hard up for hosting, and reluctant to put 500MB photo ? )
asciilifeform: iirc phf already gave one to some d00d who never came back
asciilifeform: simply, they're ~priceless rembrandts, and i'd rather not send one to a d00d sight-unseen
asciilifeform: dare i to ask how that worx ? what is it, ...eat mushroom and watch cartoons on ceiling?
asciilifeform: danielpbarron: if it aint a mega-seekrit -- what is it that you do with most of yer time ?
asciilifeform remembers old su joak. orthodox j00 kid is going to town for 1st time. asks, 'rebbe, there are many temptations in the city, what should i avoid looking at' 'waddayamean' 'well, i heard there are chix' 'what of'em?' 'well, i hear there's them strippers... good jew should not look at strippers?' 'you can look at strippers' 'there are bare cunts! really, good jew can look at cunts?!' 'yes' 'so what ~shouldn't~ a good jew look at
