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This appears to be a pressure-fed rather than pumped engine, so limited real-world utility. Nonetheless, it’s incredibly impressive especially given that it seems to have been successful on the first try.

I wonder how practical it might be to integrate turbo machinery into an automated design system like this?

Oh, and it really is beautiful with copper construction and that fascinating swirl.


> This appears to be a pressure-fed rather than pumped engine, so limited real-world utility

This is addressed in the article:

> This is a relatively compact engine, which would be suitable for a final kick stage of an orbital rocket.

It has lots of real world application, just not currently as part of a lift stage since you're right it's a pressure based one as opposed to a pumped engine.


If I'm not mistaken, the Falcon 1 used a pressure-fed upper stage engine.

Sure did! The Kestrel engine (had to double-check that memory) was a cute little thing, but it did the job.

All are pressure fed. A pump generates pressure. It's common to test engine components without pumps using high pressure vessels in lieu of pumps. The E Complex at Stennis Space Center specializes in this approach.

Pressure fed is a fixed term when applied to rocket engines and means “fed only by the pressure in the tank (which is most of the time generated by having a pressurization system fed by another high pressure helium tank) and not by a pump”.

The swirl isn't really an essential part of the rocket design, but ports for thermocouples (i.e, temperature sensors).

“ The engine uses thin cooling channels that swirl around the chamber jacket, with a variable cross sections as thin as 0.8mm. The Kerosene is pressed through the channels to cool the engine and prevent it from melting.”

Seriously, my high school was mostly boring and pointless. I’m in awe of the opportunities some kids are able to find/create today.


Seriously. A good place in the United States will give you four weeks of PTO. Couple that with a decent holiday schedule and unlimited sick days (limiting sick days is a red flag, imho) and the only other thing you need is a big check.

Full disclosure: I’m 51 but never expected anything from my employers beyond a pleasant work environment, time off, medical insurance, and a significant regular contribution to my account.


We all understand that this cannot and will not continue, right? One of two things happens:

1. The AI boom goes bust. Nvidia sales and/or margins crater. The stock craters with it.

2. The AI boom is the real deal. Companies aren’t stupid and won’t keep paying Nvidia these prices forever. Pretty soon hardware and software architectures are standardized enough that anyone who can get onboard with TSMC, Samsung, or Intel can churn out hardware optimized for the right few functions and sell for a faction of the price. Nvidia can still be an innovator but they won’t be able to sell “bread and butter” products at these prices. Sales and/or margins crater, as does the stock.


NVIDIA got lucky that modern computer architecture happens to favor GPUs for AI workloads. They won't be able to milk it for long, but they for sure have the money to pivot. Question is whether they will put that money to good use or not.


You know, you can make money with predictions if you have the conviction.


I also think NVDA is overvalued, but timing is everything. They could stay overvalued for years before coming back down. "The market can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent" and all that.


Not GP, but that's exactly what I'm doing. Sold NVIDIA recently at 869 USD (having bought it at 453 USD), and invested profits in Intel :) We'll see how that plays out in a year or two.


$869 sale means you sold between March 2024 and last week. Let’s game this out:

100 shares of NVDA at 453 pared down to just profits from 869 sale would mean holding about 48 shares and selling 52 shares. After today’s after hours movement your invested profit would be worth about $48k, or about $6300 more than when you cashed out your initial investment ($41712).

You take that same $41712 and buy INTC between March and now. If it was bought in March then you’re in for something like $43/share or 970 shares. Intel has been sliding since April and is now at $31. Your profit from NVDA has shrunk by nearly 30%. In the worst case (you bought in March rather than April), you’ve given up near $19k in profit by following your convictions. Your gains have gone from 115% (had you held) to potentially as low as 70%. I guess it’s all house money anyways though, right?


You're talking about this with benefit of hindsight. When I was selling at $869 I would not know how it will go. And, as a matter of fact, a week or two after I sold NVDA dipped to $700, although temporarily. So, it's just a matter of personal risk tolerance, I guess.


I have a 6 figure profit in NVDA shares right now. Cost basis is something like $100. I have considered selling( or at what price I would sell). The problem I have is what could I possibly buy with that profit? Intel hasn't shown that they have a real plan. The move in META seems to have already happened. I don't trust that Alphabet has any idea what they're doing. I could buy more Microsoft or Amazon shares I guess. I wouldn't throw money at these software stocks like Snowflake or the SNOWs of the world. AAPL might be a play if I have the conviction that Tim Cook has an AI plan in place.

In the end I'd probably just take the easy way out and go buy VTSAX and chill.


Your last paragraph: I would recommend this instead: VOO-Vanguard S&P 500 ETF


really? intel a sideways stock from the 70s is the best long you found in the entire planet? out of all the financial instruments and all the markets and all the categories u actually believe that’s the best pain to gain ratio play


They have their own fabs, a new GPU line, and they're national security critical. they also make pretty good CPUs even if they aren't the best value/$.


Intel literally cant fail because of national security. The government will continuously bail them out which I think is a pretty big advantage, giving them time to figure something out. Theyre cheap as fuck too so tons of upside


Well, I'm betting on Gelsinger's plan to launch Intel 18A process, and regaining process lead - this should bring Intel's stock price from current $31 to at least $70. Also, it's a hedge against China invading Taiwan and blowing up TSMC, in which case it would probably skyrocket to $100+. In the meantime Intel pays nice dividends.


MSFT went sideways for like a decade too. Who knows... Intel is doing something the others aren't with building its own fabs. Which arguably carries a lot of risk but it could pay off.


3. To justify current valuation revenues must continue to grow next 4-5 years until plateauing while Nvidia profit margin gradually declines to something normal, like 30%.

High growth is fragile. The value of Nvidia has dropped 50% multiple times in the past. Recression, or temporary oversupply, anything can mess it.


You mean the same companies who are paying AWS, Azure and GCP a lot of money for decades despite there being cheap alternatives? Or which customers do you talk about?

My company uses Azure for years. I don't expect them to change that anytime soon, I mean we're a SAP customer for 40+ years and SAP is Germany's No. 1 price gouging company. We use MS products for decades as well despite them being more expensive every year and I still do more or less the same in Excel today as I did years ago.

I think you have a misunderstanding of how B2C works and especially when we talk about enterprise level SW solutions. No CEO in their mind is switching business operation SW if a competitor is on sale lol.


This thought is strange. This very moment is the moment of success. Perhaps it can grow more, who knows, but a maximum declines on either side, that's literally what a maximum is.

Saying it won't last should not be profound because that fact should be self-evident. The only reason it becomes profound is because a lot of people are just that stupid.


What is happening is that every government on the planet is forced to procure local DC compute capacity to protect national sovereignty. The US ensured this with SWIFT deplatforming Russia.

And there is nobody else they can buy from on their timelines.


I noticed that your post failed to include important details such as when option 1 or 2 will happen or how option 2 will be implemented. I don’t disagree, I’m just pointing out that your post is worse than useless blathering, it’s useless noise.


A significant question is what "pretty soon" means. Nvidia also owns other parts of the stack (cuda) that makes them more difficult to replace.


The hard question is "when". I agree with you, yet I'd rather be long NVDA than short NVDA. (I am neither).


There is also third option - which I'm not saying I think happens, but if AGI was to happen then there is possibility of just few winners taking it all. Whoever gets there first would simply snowball away. It would be end game of capitalism.


lol, so short the stock...?


I’m with you. It’s hilarious to think back on, but I got a “no” from my present employer after the first technical interview because I didn’t remember the options to one particular tool.

Thankfully a somewhat distant inside connection was achieved, who managed to suggest “maybe that wasn’t actually the correct decision” and I got the chance to continue with the process. It’s all been good since then.

I sure do have an internal chuckle every time I have to use that particular tool… and still have to look up the options. :-)


I recently went to an interview where I was asked some specifics where the real-life answer is "I'd Google and have and answer in 30 seconds". I'm very curious as to whether this will be held against me...

But they also did give me what I thought was quite a good test, which was talking through some working code and suggesting how it could be improved.


Good news, you can have both!


Fun thought exercise, thanks! My question is, what advantage would a large exchange find in moving to cloud? They’ve already got the personnel capable of managing their environment. They’re not a rapidly-growing startup in need of flexibility. They’re large enough to get at least decent deals purchasing gear. “The cloud” will naturally expect to make a profit on the deal, which likely eats up (and then some) any savings which might otherwise be delivered.

I “get” cloud in a lot of circumstances but it doesn’t seem to make much sense here.


Without reductions in personnel, then none.

That's essentially what you're buying from a cloud provider. Most of the time its not so much renting the hardware as renting their labor in maintenance.

That is assuming your hardware needs don't have a wide enough variance from time to time (scale up/scale down)


Unintegrated or, perhaps… Dis-integrated?


The correct term is discrete circuit.

We used to have circuits, and when integrated on one piece of silicone, we called them "integrated circuits", while the old ones became "discrete circuits".


I think that’s not quite correct re: the Cray 1 having 64 copies of certain units. True, the vector registers did have 64 entries but the vector functional units were pipelined. They could return a result each cycle (once past the initial latency) but did not return 64 results simultaneously.


Very excited for this as usual, and thanks to a few delays, I won’t be on the train at T-0.

As for expectations, I’ll be thrilled to see Starship reach orbital velocity. Last time was so close. Engine restart and intact reentry? Even better but maybe more of a stretch? Fears? Only that it doesn’t do as well as IFT-2. And that’s always a possibility.


Also commuting around this :) Looks to be very successful. I wonder how many tests the ship can pass in orbit.


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