
Caltech Potato Chips (1996) - ch
http://www.async.caltech.edu/~mika/potato/potato.html
======
emcq
Blast from the past! If you think this kind of less traditional circuit design
is cool, you should also check out some of the more recent stuff in low-power
asynchronous architectures:

[http://vlsi.cornell.edu/research.php](http://vlsi.cornell.edu/research.php)

[https://web.stanford.edu/group/brainsinsilicon/neurogrid.htm...](https://web.stanford.edu/group/brainsinsilicon/neurogrid.html)

[http://paulmerolla.com/merolla_main_som.pdf](http://paulmerolla.com/merolla_main_som.pdf)

~~~
mjbs
And if you want to get an asynchronous chip you can play around with today,
check out the GA144 from Greenarrays. I believe this is currently the only
commercially available asynchronous processor.
[http://www.greenarraychips.com/home/products/index.html](http://www.greenarraychips.com/home/products/index.html)

------
tptacek
TI famously brags (and has videos demonstrating) that you can power an MSP430
off a lemon.

~~~
c54
And the msp430 has two internal clocks/oscillators! (iirc)

~~~
TeMPOraL
MSP430 is a cute little bugger! I also liked the TI's MSP430-derivative
evaluation platform that was bundled in a... watch[0]. eZ430 Chronos was my
first smartwatch, and it's still somewhere in the closet, still running off
that same coin battery it had when I first bought it few years ago.

[0] -
[http://processors.wiki.ti.com/index.php/EZ430-Chronos](http://processors.wiki.ti.com/index.php/EZ430-Chronos)

------
jasonjei
In the _Portal 2_ video game where the main character throws the erstwhile
antagonist (now uneasy ally) GLaDOS computer "chip" into a potato, is that
joke connected to this at all?

~~~
geocrasher
I was wondering the same thing!

------
rwg
_By comparison, today 's (January 1996) state-of-the art technologies have
feature sizes of about 0.25 microns._

And today (November 2015), chips manufactured on 14 nanometer (0.014 micron)
processes are shipping in volume.

------
cbd1984
Well, that was certainly an enriching read.

More seriously, we've done this before. Old Usenet thread about asynchronous
PDP-10s and PDP-6s:

[https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/alt.sys.pdp10/wqWlZQ...](https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/alt.sys.pdp10/wqWlZQ6m9Ew)

------
fouric
So the processor computation rate increases/decreases as voltage does? This
could have interesting applications, such as a treadmill that allows you to
compute (run games? watch videos?) more the faster you run, or a phone that
gradually decreases the power supply to its processor to conserve power as its
battery loses charge.

~~~
zeusk
No, but higher voltage allows for lower gate propogation delay.

~~~
fouric
I'm afraid that I don't understand the difference...

------
aylons
Do not confuse with Potato Semiconductors, which make famous high-speed chips:
[http://www.potatosemi.com/](http://www.potatosemi.com/)

Sadly, I've never had the chance to try these Potato chips.

------
dang
More at
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10612349](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10612349).

------
oxplot
"that's two potatoes in series" \- rarely one comes across such a combination
of words. I'm still laughing.

------
madengr
Funny, I still have all that exact test equipment shown in the photos, with
the exception of the meter in the upper right.

------
peterburkimsher
"Sorry for the long post, here's a potato." That must be one of the earliest
examples of that meme!

