HN Theater @HNTheaterMonth

Also, check LibreSilicon [1], a free and open source semiconductor manufacturing process, currently in development. The target is 1 μm, but the developers said 0.5 μm should be possible. Here's a comprehensive introductory talk [2]. And as usual, the project is on GitHub [3]. If things went well, they said they planned to manufacture an open source RISC-V microcontroller, pin-compatible with Atmel AVR ATTiny.

[1] https://libresilicon.com

[2] https://media.ccc.de/v/35c3-9410-libresilicon

[3] https://github.com/libresilicon/process

⬐ analogmind

Attended this talk. I especially liked the fact they try to make it process-independent.

⬐ baybal2

I'm greatly delighted by the news that they managed to keep things going.

I was very sceptical at first when I met David a year ago. Given that he is much more cleanly shaved now, I assume things finally turned for the better for them.

⬐ cma

There are lots of superfund sites around Silicon Valley. Does he cover pollution? It seems like more accountability for pollution is a benefit of centralization.

⬐ narrator

This DIY home semiconductor manufacturer: https://www.instructables.com/id/Home-Semiconductor-Manufact... used a rust stain remover which is 2% hydrofluoric acid. I am amazed that they sell such ridiculously dangerous chemicals to the general public!

⬐ gdpgreg

If anyone is planning on following this, make sure to read up about how to properly handle HF before you touch it. That shit is time delayed death in a bottle, and make sure to get a tube or two of HF antidote, the author doesn't discuss the very strong dangers associated with it.

⬐ philipkglass

Counterintuitively, chemicals with high reactivity and high acute toxicity like HF are usually not the cause of semiconductor Superfund sites. The most common problem is chlorinated solvents used for cleaning. Trichloroethylene is a lot safer to spill on yourself than HF, but the hazards of TCE endure much longer than those of HF when it gets down into the water table.

I don't know if modern fabs have mostly switched to less environmentally persistent solvents or if they're just a lot more careful about not discharging solvents to the environment.

⬐ blackoil

How else will you make body barrels?

⬐ XorNot

Fun fact, Breaking Bad very carefully gets all the science in the crime wrong in subtle ways.

⬐ AnthonyMouse

> I am amazed that they sell such ridiculously dangerous chemicals to the general public!

HF is a very simple compound that anyone who knows what they're doing could produce on their own. Restricting access to such things is inherently worse than providing it, because anyone who doesn't know what they're doing could attempt to produce it themselves.

Then in the best case they end up with the acid regardless and in the worst case they get the concentration wrong or produce who knows what other compound by mistake that may or may not eat through the container they're holding it it, fill the room with poison gas or cause a large fire or explosion.

⬐ mrob

Pollution is the natural result of weakly regulated capitalism. If you can turn your costs into externalities then you'll out-compete everybody who acts ethically. But if your goal isn't commercial success then you can afford to take more care to minimize pollution.

⬐ theredbox

And if your goal is not a commercial success why would you do it in the first place ?

⬐ akiselev

Humans are not automatons programmed by Thomas Paine.

⬐ cma

Thomas Paine advocated for a basic income..

⬐ jackfoxy

What's the explanation for pollution when the means of production belong to the people? https://www.nytimes.com/1986/05/11/world/east-bloc-aides-cit...

⬐ mrob

The same tragedy-of-the-commons effects can affect any economic system if there's no mechanism to prevent them. If the means of production belong to the people in name only, then those with the real power will exploit them to the detriment to others. One advantage of capitalism is that we don't have to pretend this doesn't happen, which means we can introduce the strong regulations necessary to control externalities.

⬐ antt

Pollution is also a result of centralization. Methods that are cost effective in huge projects are usually ones far too unsafe to be used in small projects.

A stupidly obvious example is farming. Small scale manure production is a net benefit to the local soil. Factory farming destroys rivers, lakes and small seas.

⬐ jcranmer

> A stupidly obvious example is farming. Small scale manure production is a net benefit to the local soil. Factory farming destroys rivers, lakes and small seas.

Small scale farming is literally destroying the Chesapeake Bay--manure is the single biggest source of pollution.

The advantage of large-scale production is that you can apply centralized remediation efforts. It's easy to make a sewage treatment plant that handles 100 million gallons of water a day clean up all of its toxicity before dumping the water out. It's hard to tell 10 million people to stop dumping so much manure on their farms, especially when they're all going to say "eh, what is adding 50 extra pounds of manure going to do?" What may be safe on the scale of an individual use may not be so safe when it is repeated for millions of individual uses.

⬐ selimthegrim

See also: crop burning in Indian Punjab

⬐ kwhitefoot

I suspect that the comment you are replying to had a crop rotation system in mind where the manure from the animals directly fertilises the fields, see, for instance, Norfolk Crop Rotation: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Norfolk-four-course-system.

⬐ None

None

⬐ xvilka

We also need a proper tooling for ASIC and FPGA chip design, see the efforts of SymbiFlow [1].

[1] http://symbiflow.github.io/

⬐ lnsru

Looks cute, but I am not sure, that my boss at big Corp wants to use this. Personally I feel too lazy to use other tools than vendor provided ones for my hobby projects in my spare time.

⬐ whazor

Inform your boss about the cost savings in licensing and benefits in recruitment.

⬐ kingosticks

What are the recruitment benefits? Student licenses (free) exist for many of the big tools. license costs are small compared to developer costs. The most productive tool is the tool we want (and use).

⬐ lnsru

We have here exclusive agreement for licensing, so couple hundred bucks mean nothing for big Corp. The bigger problem is a new exotic tool in the big Corp’s ecosystem. Good luck hiring somebody with knowledge of this tool and porting decades developed projects there. First FPGA project of the company decides about tools and chip vendor for the next century.

⬐ RickSanchez2600

This could reduce the cost of making silicon chips, and make it easier as well.

⬐ agumonkey

soon we'll have libreworld

⬐ TaylorAlexander

https://libreplanet.org/2018/

⬐ pedrocx486

Is "decentralization" the buzzword that'll try to overtake "neural networks"?

⬐ akiselev

Same way "centralization" took over from "logistic regression".

⬐ deepnotderp

I applaud this effort, and there are a lot of things that don't need the newest node like analog and silicon photonics that will do just fine with an ancient process.