T
Tom Verbeure
tomverbeure.github.io · Personal blog · on HN since 2018
Tom Verbeure writes about electronics hobby projects, FPGA design, RISC-V cores, test equipment teardowns, and video signal tools.
What HN saysHN links it for his FPGA and electronics projects, such as the fake parallel printer capture tool, and he describes his steady blogging pace.
39HN people shared it
14linked it in comments
66stories submitted
1.7Kstory points
5 months agolast shared
2018people per year2026
Most-shared posts
- 1Video Timings Calculator5 people · 2 points · first shared 2019 · discussion on HN
- 2A Racing-The-Beam Ray Tracer in an FPGA4 people · 14 points · first shared 2018 · discussion on HN
- 3SweRV – An Annotated Deep Dive of the SweRV RISC-V Core3 people · 113 points · first shared 2019 · 13 comments on HN
- 4Remote controlling an HP 1670G logic analyzer with a Linux PC X server3 people · 71 points · first shared 2023 · 25 comments on HN
- 5Reed-Solomon Error Correcting Codes from the Bottom Up3 people · 10 points · first shared 2022 · discussion on HN
- 6The VexRiscV CPU – A New Way to Design3 people · 3 points · first shared 2018 · discussion on HN
- 7Analyzing the Monoprice Blackbird HDCP 2.2 to 1.4 Down Converter3 people · 2 points · first shared 2023 · discussion on HN
- 8HP 16500A Logic Analyzer Teardown3 people · 2 points · first shared 2022 · discussion on HN
- 9Solderless PCB Assembly with Z-Tape – You Shouldn't, but Maybe You Could?3 people · 1 points · first shared 2022 · discussion on HN
- 10Tesla's FSD – A Useless Technology Demo2 people · 254 points · first shared 2024 · 362 comments on HN
- 11A Tektronix TDS 684B Oscilloscope Uses CCD Analog Memory2 people · 109 points · first shared 2025 · 64 comments on HN
- 12Inside an Isotemp OCXO107-10 Oven Controlled Crystal Oscillator2 people · 108 points · first shared 2025 · 13 comments on HN
- 13Interposer to fix the Symmetricom SyncServer S200 GPS week rollover problem2 people · 52 points · first shared 2024 · 15 comments on HN
- 14Reusing the Sony CRT Module of an HP 16500A Logic Analyzer2 people · 27 points · first shared 2022 · 1 comments on HN
- 15Write Your Own C and Python Clients for the Intel JTAG UART2 people · 9 points · first shared 2021 · discussion on HN
What HN people wrote when they linked it
tverbeure · 2022-04-07
Electronics etc. - https://tomverbeure.github.io
I try to stay on a pace of at least 1 blog post about various electronics topics every 2 months. It's a great way to have a little bit of pressure to finish some hobby projects, but not too much pressure to actually feel pressure.
myself248 · 2024-08-23
As in, they don't provide a user-facing way to clear the memory.
The Arbiter suffers from this: https://users.ece.cmu.edu/~dbrumley/pdf/Nighswander%20et%20al._2012_GP…
And someone went to silly lengths to fix a Furuno: https://tomverbeure.github.io/2024/08/18/Fixing-the-Symmetricom-S200-G…
Fun trivia, the Unix epoch rolls over in January of 2038, but the next GPS WNRO happens in Novermber of that same year. So some systems, if you hiccup the epoch past that, may immediately suffer Y2038 problems.
WillFlux · 2021-02-02
Alas, this is a surprisingly hard question to answer, at least for FPGA design.
Here are a few sites that helped me learn:
* https://www.fpga4fun.com
* http://fpgacpu.ca
* https://www.nandland.com/verilog/tutorials/index.html
* https://1bitsquared.com/pages/chat (Discord)
And a few interesting blogs:
* https://blackmesalabs.wordpress.com/
* https://tomverbeure.github.io
* http://labs.domipheus.com/blog/
None of the introductory FPGA books have impressed me, so I don’t have any recommendations there. Maybe some other HN readers will have some suggestions?
aspenmayer · 2024-11-30
I would tend to agree with you and OP, and I also appreciate the project that TFA uses, which seems pretty cool:
https://github.com/tomverbeure/fake_parallel_printer
https://tomverbeure.github.io/2023/01/24/Fake-Parallel-Printer-Capture…
raphlinus · 2024-08-15
My understanding is that the HSTX can do twice the bit clock as the frequency of the CPU, as opposed to 1x for RP2040. So 800x480 (60Hz) is possible with no overclocking (295MHz bit clock) and Luke said [1] he got 1280x720 50Hz with overclocking (530MHz using CVT-R according to the video timings calculator [2]).
[1]: https://mastodon.online/@[email protected]/112928551221457525
[2]: https://tomverbeure.github.io/video_timings_calculator
korhojoa · 2023-11-24
That's not really the full story, when this is about displays.
I currently have a display that requires Displayport 2.1 to get everything out of it, and with DSC and DP 1.4, I can get a "theoretical bitrate" that is higher than what they would normally allow. (Of course, this doesn't change what the link can do, it just allows you to do more with the same bandwidth) On thunderbolt 3 systems, the link is on HBR3, which with DSC allows 120hz, 10bit at 7680x2160. No DSC support limits the refresh to 60hz and 8bit (as then you won't have the higher rates available anyway, since DSC is mandatory with newer standards).
You can check https://tomverbeure.github.io/video_timings_calculator to see what is possible.
rasz · 2023-09-24
not OP, but: https://tomverbeure.github.io/2022/06/17/HP16500a-teardown.html
pros:
- ~hundred very fast channels
- user defined logic levels
cons:
- loud, slow, hot, outdated
- hilarious sample depth
mardifoufs · 2022-04-19
Yep! But it sadly cannot replace soldering for denser pinout layouts, unless a lot of pressure is applied. Someone tried though;
https://tomverbeure.github.io/2019/11/21/Z-tape.html
(A bit off topic but that Bloomberg story is still such a mystery to me. It went into quite a bit of details and claimed it had tons of sources, so even if it was a completely false story whoever fabricated it must have put insane amounts of efforts/identity fraud into the set up)
thrtythreeforty · 2022-04-17
It has been tried and doesn't work very well, even for low-density pinouts:
https://tomverbeure.github.io/2019/11/21/Z-tape.html
kragen · 2022-01-26
There are a couple hundred FOSS CPU designs actually:
https://tomverbeure.github.io/rtl/2018/12/06/The-VexRiscV-CPU-A-New-Wa…
https://www.oracle.com/servers/technologies/opensparc-overview.html
https://opencores.org/projects?expanded=Processor
I agree that manufacturing is a real problem. FOSS processors can get adoption but until we open up the manufacturing pipeline they won't provide end users with the benefits we get from FOSS software.
russler23 · 2020-02-09
Interesting talk because SweRV EH2 is multithreaded.
Additional Resources
SweRV GitHub: https://github.com/chipsalliance/Cores-SweRV
Apache license. Commercial support available from Codasip.
Tom Verbeure's SweRV EH1 deep dive (posted to HN before): https://tomverbeure.github.io/2019/03/13/SweRV.html
Western Digital's deep dive no longer available :(
https://www.meetup.com/Bay-Area-RISC-V-Meetup/events/258482969/
duskwuff · 2019-11-28
The calculator I was using was:
https://tomverbeure.github.io/video_timings_calculator
Changing the refresh rate would work too, but some monitors can be pretty picky about that.
justasimpleman · 2019-03-14
What is this scattered design about?
https://tomverbeure.github.io/assets/swerv/slides/13%20-%20SweRV%20-%2…
kvemkon · 2023-12-29
> unsubstantiated claims
Indeed:
> It used to be easy to have any kind of X client connect to a remote X server. Back in the early 1990s on the HP Apollo workstations in college, it was a simple matter of setting the DISPLAY environment variable, but that was before network security was a concern.
Remote controlling an HP 1670G logic analyzer with a Linux PC X server
https://tomverbeure.github.io/2023/12/26/Controlling-an-HP-1670G-with-…
10 hours ago here on HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38778807
and also:
> I recently scored a Hewlett Packard 1670A Deep Memory Logic Analyzer and I finally had a chance to fire it up. This unit dates back to 1992 and is packed with all sorts of interesting options for connecting peripherals to it. One particular feature that caught my eye was the option to connect to an X Server.
A Testament to X11 Backwards Compatibility
http://www.theresistornetwork.com/2013/12/a-testament-to-x11-backwards…
10 years ago on HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6850591