2024-06-29 00:05:54 <MrMobius    > crc, what about esp32?
2024-06-29 00:40:08 <crc         > MrMobius: the TTGO VGA Controller board I have is ESP32 based, but I don't yet have any development tools for ESP32
2024-06-29 00:48:05 <KipIngram   > I think if I were going after VGA, my first thoughts would be to include dual ported RAM (maybe by alternating cycles to the two channels) stick a CPLD by it that fetched out the data and drove the VGA signals.
2024-06-29 00:48:14 <KipIngram   > Then the main processor would just write that RAM.
2024-06-29 00:52:37 <KipIngram   > I'm quite interested in e-ink, though.  I keep hoping they'll find a way to speed it up enough to use in a more "real time update" way.
2024-06-29 00:53:14 <KipIngram   > Some of them let you update individual parts of the screen, but there's a limit on how many times you can do that before you have to do a full refresh.
2024-06-29 00:55:42 <MrMobius    > KipIngram: check out the Sharp memory displays if you haven't seen them
2024-06-29 00:59:09 <crc         > 
ACTION is very interested in experimenting with the sharp memory lcd displays

2024-06-29 01:06:43 <crc         > re: eink; how fast do you need it to be?
2024-06-29 01:07:18 <crc         > the inkplate 5 takes just over 1s for a full display, and around 0.2s for partial updates
2024-06-29 01:07:53 <KipIngram   > Those look... very interesting.  I seem to only see rather small ones, though.
2024-06-29 01:08:04 <KipIngram   > Like 3"-4" max?
2024-06-29 01:09:06 <crc         > \
2024-06-29 01:09:31 <crc         > inkplate 5 is a 5", I think they also have a 6" and 10" model, but those are a little slower to update IIRC
2024-06-29 01:10:20 <crc         > https://www.crowdsupply.com/soldered/inkplate-5
2024-06-29 01:10:38 <crc         > https://www.crowdsupply.com/soldered/inkplate-10
2024-06-29 01:10:41 <KipIngram   > Yes, I looked more and think I see larger ones.
2024-06-29 01:10:48 <KipIngram   > I first just looked on Digikey.
2024-06-29 01:11:00 <KipIngram   > Very interesting.
2024-06-29 01:11:12 <KipIngram   > They're not touch, right?
2024-06-29 01:11:41 <crc         > under development is https://www.crowdsupply.com/soldered/inkplate-6-motion
2024-06-29 01:12:41 <KipIngram   > Kind of pricey, but it sure would make a lot of things simple.
2024-06-29 01:13:01 <crc         > this one is supposed to have a touchscreen: https://www.crowdsupply.com/soldered/inkplate-6plus
2024-06-29 01:14:40 <crc         > agreed on the pricing. It'd be nice if they were less expensive, but they do look to have a fair amount of functionality included
2024-06-29 02:00:20 <KipIngram   > Those really do look interesting.  An item of interest for me is a tablet format gadget that I interact with either by touch or by bluetooth keyboard.
2024-06-29 02:01:19 <KipIngram   > But I'd really like for it to have superb battery life.  Minimum I'd want would be to wake up, take it off the charger and use it all day long without concern, and put it back on the charger when I went to bed.
2024-06-29 02:01:43 <KipIngram   > And the display is usually the power hog in such devices, so progress there would be fantastic.
2024-06-29 02:02:39 <KipIngram   > I wouldn't be trying to do serious number crunching or anything like that, but I might want to do some light calculations, draw graphs, etc.  And work on PCB layouts and that kind of thing.
2024-06-29 02:03:01 <KipIngram   > I've always thought a tablet could be almost ideal for PCB design.
2024-06-29 02:03:36 <KipIngram   > But you just don't find that kind of software for iPads or Android devices.  It's always seemed to me like tablet software is mostly "cutesy toys."
2024-06-29 02:03:46 <KipIngram   > No really SERIOUS productivity tools.
2024-06-29 02:06:28 <KipIngram   > Geogebra has a nice Android version that I've only tried on my phone, but I think it would be very nice on a tablet.  The Geogebra interface works in a way that "fits" the tablet paradigm well, and you really can do some fairly serious "geometry explorations" with it.
2024-06-29 02:06:47 <KipIngram   > Not quite enough room on the phone to really use it well.
2024-06-29 02:10:36 <crc         > re: battery life; I'm aiming for the things Arland & I are working on to make it at least 20 hours of use (long enough to get me through a full day)
2024-06-29 02:13:59 <crc         > It seems doable; the last run on a prototype w/a 320x240 LCD died at just over 25 hours (using a set of batteries that were appox 15mAH capacity, power delivery via a 5V USB port).
2024-06-29 02:14:34 <crc         > tablets aren't really viewed as serious tools from what I see
2024-06-29 02:16:17 <crc         > (rather annoyingly, as I like the tablet form factor and do most of my computing tasks using one)
2024-06-29 02:21:55 <KipIngram   > 20 hours should be plenty - I *do* try to sleep more than four hours a night.  :-)
2024-06-29 02:22:41 <KipIngram   > I agree - I think they're viewed almost as though they're "fashion accessories" and entertainment devices.
2024-06-29 02:24:00 <crc         > I've been trying to increase my sleep, only recently starting to have a little success at this. (4 hours is good for me; I was under 2 per night for quite a few years)
2024-06-29 02:24:08 <KipIngram   > I mentioned distributed computing earlier - I think a neat mode of operation would be to have a compute server sitting on your home network somewhere and then have a tablet INTERFACE to the compute server.
2024-06-29 02:25:04 <KipIngram   > You could carry the tablet around with you, and you COULD do stuff directly on it, but as soon as you got home and connected to your network it could start offloading the heavy lifting.
2024-06-29 02:25:38 <KipIngram   > Or maybe it would be bluetooth - either way could work.
2024-06-29 02:28:53 <crc         > I've explored distributed stuff a little. I've implemented a variation of my VM that can transfer the system state between various machines, so I can start something, send it off to another machine to keep running, then pull it back to check status or continue locally.
2024-06-29 07:03:16 <veltas      > traveler: I think my goal is more pragmatic than that 50 year computer, I am aiming to support an emerging market of Risc-V CPU's which I think will get a lot of traction because of the China sanctions
2024-06-29 07:04:02 <veltas      > And they're quite cheap so there's a low barrier to entry, and quite powerful (around the power of a modern phone currently, but they're already aiming towards server-grade stuff)
2024-06-29 07:12:47 <veltas      > vms14: The first thing that jumps to mind is the numbers selected describe a cross-section of an artichoke
2024-06-29 07:13:33 <veltas      > The negative continuous section is the heart+stem, and the divisible-by-10 dots are the rows of petals
2024-06-29 07:13:37 <veltas      > https://www.oceanmist.com/anatomy-artichoke
2024-06-29 07:14:19 <veltas      > I think 'don't ask' ultimately just means "it doesn't mean anything" or "it meant something but doesn't make any sense written down"
2024-06-29 07:14:24 <veltas      > It's jokey sure
2024-06-29 07:14:41 <veltas      > I originally took it as a joke and moved on
2024-06-29 07:27:51 <veltas      > Ah okay that makes more sense, this Lichee dev board costs like £150 with the actual SBC
2024-06-29 08:07:00 <veltas      > And you get complimentary software to help redirect you to more relevant info if you google 'great famine', noice
2024-06-29 08:14:25 <veltas      > You have to admit this is seriously cool stuff https://wiki.sipeed.com/hardware/en/lichee/th1520/lc4a/lc4a.html
2024-06-29 08:14:37 <veltas      > I'm loving this trade war
2024-06-29 08:16:20 <veltas      > And they've got a laptop this SBC plugs in to
2024-06-29 08:54:02 <veltas      > KipIngram: Are you interested in having an interface for 3D graphics?
2024-06-29 08:56:18 <veltas      > And same question to crc
2024-06-29 09:00:04 <KipIngram   > I'm unsure about that.  I don't have any well-formed thoughts about how I would do it.  Seems like trying to go down that road would lead fairly quickly to trying to design a GPU.  I know all of those calculations could be done in software, but the performance probably wouldn't be great without some kind of hardware acceleration.
2024-06-29 09:03:33 <veltas      > You're up late/early?
2024-06-29 09:06:47 <veltas      > I would have some limited set of old opengl style features probably
2024-06-29 09:07:02 <veltas      > Doesn't have to be fastest on new machines
2024-06-29 09:07:31 <veltas      > But stuff that will work without incredible effort with opengl es
2024-06-29 09:07:57 <veltas      > Textures, lights, triangles, matrices, buffers etc
2024-06-29 09:08:14 <veltas      > Devil's in the detail I suppose
2024-06-29 10:11:56 <veltas      > crc: I'll admit the teensy thing is quite interesting, as is the VGA thing
2024-06-29 10:14:07 <veltas      > crc: If you get it working and have it online I will buy a kit and try it out
2024-06-29 10:15:11 <veltas      > I would probably aim to get a network stack working as you're less interested in that, which is totally understandable