Wholly ignorant passer by here. Is this a thing that’d make (notoriously) slow FPGA synthesis (by which I think I mean the conversion of VHDL or Verilog to something that can be injected into an FPGA) much faster?
No, but it could help people build those synthesis tools much faster.
P4Synth takes a (mathematical) group of functions/expressions and finds strong candidate implementations for every class in that group. Then, as long we have a fast (expression → class) mapping for that group we can use the generated solutions as a database embedded within the compiler for automated expression replacement (or mapping from expressions to circuits/technology).
Vivado/Quartus (FPGA) technology mapping and LLVM's InstCombine stage are essentially this. InstCombine's pattern library is partially human-authored, partially generated by search tools; it lists ~30k subexpression replacements like a+a+a → a*3. P4Synth competes with those search tools. For hard function classes, existing methods might take weeks on a supercomputer: P4Synth speeds that up exponentially.
It only solves a narrow toy problem right now (4-input boolean functions), but I believe the technique could scale with modifications (like A* style prioritisation over signal-set novelty and implementation score).
As a not-Israeli Jew the reluctance of the Israeli government to send alleged criminals for trial overseas doesn’t make me happy, but I also remember that there are some reasons for this.
Unfortunately many countries have blanket extradition bans. US is one of the worst - it caused a lot of tension in the past when they wouldn't extradite IRA bombers but got UK to agree to extradite anyone US wanted.
There's an interview show on RTE presented by Tommy Tiernan. I don't care for him much, but I happened to be watching the episode where JJB was interviewed. The thing that makes the show interesting (modulo Tommy, the prick) is that he doesn't know who the next guest will be, and often doesn't know why they're notable even when he is told their name, live. So, he has to ask them questions. "Why are you notable?". This I love, because it's a recognition that there are many people who do, and have done, really interesting, worthwhile things without necessarily being known to more than a small segment of the population. [I feel this way about footballers and opera singers. I know a few really big names, but it's mostly a clouded mountain top to me]
So, JJB is interviewed. Approximately like this:
TT: So, who are you? Why are you interesting?
JJB: I discovered pulsars.
TT: ... what's a pulsar?
JJB: <explanation>
.. drifts into talk about Nobel prizes. JJB continues as you say to be a class act. Then onto spirituality [not my bag]
I wish I could find the whole interview for you. It was gold. Although the subject matter of the segment I linked isn't that interesting to me, the format, and spirit (sorry) of open and honest enquiry is really good IMO. I wish we had more TV like this.
Isn’t this already a well known thing? I first learned of it reading The Great Mortality by John Kelly maybe eighteen years ago. An excellent book by the way; funnier than you might expect a history of the Black Death to be.
One more reason to look to an electrically heated future. Where I live the air becomes unpleasant in winter as some neighbours heat their homes by burning what i can only assume are old tires and horse carcasses.
oh, it's illegal where I live. But some people pretty clearly ignore that. Enforcement doesn't seem to be a thing. I think this is one of those laws that falls into the category of things that we just have to rely on people's good will to carry out. Like small-time littering and not cleaning up after your dog, some people just don't seem to care.
FWIW, I think - based on not feeling my throat close up most of the time - that the number of people who do this is small.
I remember as a kid visiting the home of a relative who had an old oven for wood/coal heating, even though the primary heating was now a gas (natural gas not gasoline) heater.
The old oven remained though, and was used as a self-emptying trash can. When it filled up, a fire was lit to empty it. I don't remember what the sorting rules were (I assume "does it burn well and not smell up the apartment too badly when lighting it") and how common plastic packaging was back then, but I'm sure that the emissions coming out from the chimney were not a concern.
I have happy memories of the struggle to open the Trotsky boxes. In my house we used to have them with cocktails, so it was easiest to just pull out the bar tools and hack away.
The topic is interesting to me but the requirement for a display supporting VGA undermines that. In my ignorance, I still think I understand where the requirement comes from (VGA is I believe easier to build with FPGA than HDMI) but I don’t have space for another (third!) screen on my desk.
The UK has its problems. Vague laws, over-excited police, Home Secretaries from every party who can never get enough polish on jack boots.
When I lived there I complained to my MP about David Blunkett. Jack Straw was no better. I left around the time Teresa May (leopard skin boots. A change for the better) was telling migrants they weren’t welcome from the back of trucks.
Yes stasi is an intentional exaggeration of the fact that police are turning up at people's homes about their social media posts
and many have been jailed for social media posts but not all who have made comparable posts, so it seems inconsistent (targeted)
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