cross-posted from: https://mander.xyz/post/30660260

Piss off!

From the onion

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.blahaj.zone/post/26121972

Rule

Video of FBI press briefing on the car bomb at reproductive health clinic that killed one and inverted 4

cross-posted from: https://rss.ponder.cat/post/181313

The shell of a burned car in front of a home that narrowly missed the Pacific Palisades fire earlier this year.

From NYT > Top Stories via this RSS feed

cross-posted from: https://rss.ponder.cat/post/180338

Semiconductor Simulator Lets You Play IC Designer

For circuit simulation, we have always been enthralled with the Falstad simulator which is a simple, Spice-like simulator that runs in the browser. [Brandon] has a simulator, too, but it simulates semiconductor devices. With help from [Paul Falstad], that simulator also runs in the browser.

This simulator takes a little thinking and lets you build devices as you might on an IC die. The key is to use the drop-down that initially says “Interact” to select a tool. Then, the drop-down below lets you select what you are drawing, which can be a voltage source, metal, or various materials you find in semiconductor devices, like n-type or a dielectric.

It is a bit tricky, but if you check out the examples first (like this diode), it gets easier. The main page has many examples. You can even build up entire subsystems like a ring oscillator or a DRAM cell.

Designing at this level has its own quirks. For example, in the real world, you think of resistors as something you can use with great precision, and capacitors are often “sloppy.” On an IC substrate, resistors are often the sloppy component. While capacitor values might not be exact, it is very easy to get an extremely precise ratio of two capacitors because the plate size is tightly controlled. This leads to a different mindset than you are used to when designing with discrete components.

Of course, this is just a simulation, so everything can be perfect. If, for some reason, you don’t know about the Falstad simulator, check it out now.

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