Here are a few links of interest; Mostly History of Computing, future of computing, and personal histories. I hope they emphasize the wider cultural context of the intersection of computers and society and government, and I hope there is enough "6502" stuff to merit a separate string on this discussion board. Anyway, Enjoy!

(1) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hugZii_eX30 Federico Faggin at UC Berkeley 2-19-2014 "Microelectronics & Microprocessors: The Early Years"

I think he goes a bit astray on the "qualia" discussion, but, hey, what can I say? I am a "memetics" and/or Humean/Lockean "ideas/impressions" kind of guy!

(2) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5REKKkKZpY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5REKKkKZpY

More of Faggin philosophy, though I have not watched it all, just yet.

(3) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWqBmmPQP40 27c3: Reverse Engineering the MOS 6502 CPU (en)

You probably all know about this talk--or you were there--but I'll post it anyway. Excellent for newbies! I have to watch it a second time to get used to the timing of cycles/half-cycles and, basically, "how stuff gets done", i.e. control and timing sequence.

(4) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9e2SL56FSAw World's First RAM Chip (Memory Plane)

World's first RAM; interesting historical caveat.

(5) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpgV6rCn5-g HC25-K1: The Chip Design Game at the End of Moore's Law

Excellent discussion! Not much about photonics or holography? I liked the mention of CCD memories (towards
end of vid, i think in the Q and A section)! Interesting, did he dodge the "analog" question at the end? Michelson (of "no ether", "speed of light" fame, probably would have disapproved!) Probably right about "economics" of computing; and about "interface" options. How small can your phone-computer-thingy get, before its too hard to see the scene and "click the buttons"? Of course natural language processing and voice control is next; but what about strong AI! My argument; it will become essential/inevitable!

And then what? What if the "indeterminacy" or "probability" of the the computer functioning "properly" becomes tied to something one might call "whim" or "free will" and not, as quantum computing officianados might claim, "probability"? People are unstable systems (often; though often, quite stable too!)? Cannot
robots and computers be this too? How would such "intermittent" functioning effect our relationship with
our "slave", our "robots"?

I am not sure he's right about "exponentials"; I haven't read the "Kurzweil" he is referring to, but as a
biologist I can tell you exponential population growth (and the food and organization and resources that
allow it!) ARE REAL (and scary!). Bringing us to our next two links; Marcian "Tedd" Hoff and "Secret
History of Silicon Valley"


(6) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTC_RxWN_xo Secret History of Silicon Valley


Secret history of silicon valley: Excellent, except, possibly, could have used reference to two events/"themes": (1) "Tuxedo Park" a book written by the granddaughter (grandniece?) of Conant, Harvard's president at the time of WWII, and/or (2) Marcus Olsen and Dupont (Dow? I always forget!!! 90% CERTAIN its Dupont, looking for titanium dioxide replacement for white paint particles!) and the invention of Hi-Per (Hyper? spelling?) Silicon, during WWII.

The other half, the "Silicon" in Silicon valley, seems--to my mind--to deserve equal credit in the
founding of Silicon Valley. "Microwave valley", doesn't have the same ring; Germanium transistors were
king, for like 5 or 8 or 10 years after Shockley, Bardeen, and Brittain made their discovery.
I think, maybe--I don't quite have the sequence of events "down"--IC invention and/or LOCOS (Else Kooie)
were just as important as Marcus Olsen and the invention of "Hyper Silicon"--PURE Silicon--to the
phenomena that Silcion valley would become. And, maybe even Faggin's "Self-aligned Silicon Gates" was
important. I don't know; I know LOCOS was BIG, and Polysilicon gates were BIG (i.e. I studied CCDs for about
3 or 4 years, so the same was true for imagers); How about boostrap load? I am "out of my depth" in that
area? Also, after the Dupont process, the Siemens process allowed for cheap and mass quantities of pure
silicon that is now present. That took a few years to put it into place in industry, too.


(7) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsBcIrwX-e0 Ted Hoff Inventor of the Microprocessor

I wasn't horribly impressed by this talk. Seemed a bit heavy on the "business" and " salesmen" end of the spectrum. Clearly, my preference is for Faggin, though after a day or two of watching him, I also tire of his story, too (Should I seek out a better and more interesting history--with more heroes and villains--in the story of Holt and the F-14 Tomcat? Or in Gilbert Hyatt, the "possible-patent-troll" fiasco?). But, I watched it a few days ago, so maybe I forget all the "high points". I did like the end, where he acknowledged the other challenges, besides extending Moore's Law, facing humanity. equally, or more important, in my opinion!

(8)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ne1ApyqSvm0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ne1ApyqSvm0

I still haven't watched the last hour or so (fell asleep, so I might have "absorbed" some of it, by
"osmosis"!). I was struck by this interview. It seemed very personal, at times. I felt like there was depth beyond the "happenings" in the industry and a real personal story here. I don't think it was emphasized, but the questions that were asked couldn't help but be personal.

How does one interview a person who has affected THE PLANET and do so in a way is respectful and factual
and accurate? Mr. Mensch clearly does not have the "star power" of a Jobs, or a Gates, or a Faggin, or Hoff.
And yet, he DID SOMETHING. He did a BIG SOMETHING! (See the link # 6, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTC_RxWN_xo towards the end, the graphs, for the amount of money venture capital used to invest in silicon valley; minuscule, compared to "permanent-wartime-funding" of the "spy apparatus"). After 1971, presumably, venture capital ramps up, as a percentage of the whole (I have not seen the numbers, but, given what I know about how much it costs to start a semiconductor fab, I know it has to be true!).

Could it be possible that a "Mensch" (i.e. Hebrew?/Yiddish for "good person" or "good guy") would build a
product that a guy named "Peddle" (i.e. like "peddler of cheap goods") would then go and sell to the
masses, including Woz, and maybe even Gates (one of these talks I have referenced shows a bit of Bill
Gates' "6502 assembly" code; maybe the "vis 6502 talk"?). Seems like quite a story? Maybe I should research the other 6-to-8 engineers on the project?

I also felt like he had his lawyer with him, just off-screen, giving him the "cut" sign anytime litigation might intrude on the conversation. My paranoia? Maybe. I just know that, in the old days, he was "playing with the big boys" and its an "interesting" game.

So, perhaps, in summation, I will emphasize the title of this thread: Democracy and the 65-0-2 (I am catching on now! I am such a a newbie, but at least now I know it is said "sixty-five-O-two"). Given the figures for venture capital BEFORE the microprocessor and/or the 6502 and given what they (probably?) were AFTER the "genius-of-the-computer-on-a-chip".

I am only "slightly" rejecting the thesis of the "Silicon Valley secret history" guy. I think it is more complicated than that. Certainly the U.S. Government, and in particular the military and intelligence communities, took special interest in the burgeoning RADAR/Electronics industry. Such a story is as old as time (think, "Feudal Europe" and "Knights-in-shining-armor". Technology IS, and WAS, power.). But, Terman is only a part of the story, and exponential growth of the human population is the REAL revolution. Venture capital and military adventurism seem to me, like "spurs" on the main theme of human history.

So, if we think about economics of computers, where should they go next? Virtual reality (i.e. like Star Trek Next Generation "Holo-deck")? Strong AI (i.e. natural language processors, with "free-will" and conversational, logical/rational/narrative/query capability)? Or more super computers, emphasizing Giga, Tera, Peta, Exa, FLOPS, and clock speed and lower power consumption and smaller size? Or, will consumer devices continue to push Moore's Law? How much MORE functionality do consumers want and/or need?

Maybe the smaller nodes will be reached "just-because-we-can"? Then what? The DARPA guy alluded to this when he spoke of marketing; their ability to dress up as new, something which is similar or the same. Gimmicks.

Well, I hope you enjoy the links, and I hope I have not duplicated too much of the other stuff on this forum.


P.S. a few more links I forgot to include in the narrative, above.

A. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUxS17-CFYE World's First Microprocessor - F14 - Ray Holt

Seems he was first? Or Gilbert Hyatt's patent?

B. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A61uU1We5yk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A61uU1We5yk

(I didn't watch these last two links yet, but included it so that Holt or TI would not be sleighted!)

C. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnwX2IF46m0 Carver Mead presents The Universe and Us: An Integrated Theory of Electromagnetics and Gravitation

One final link of interest; Carver Mead discusses upcoming research and some physics theory. By his own admission he is "in a shootout with Einstein.". Should be interesting!


P.P.S. As you folks might have noticed, I fancy myself an amateur historian; or, at the very least, an "interested party". I am very much in favor of somebody obtaining a Nobel Prize for the invention of the microprocessor and/or for the world wide web; namely; Berners-Lee, Faggin, and maybe a few other individuals, depending upon what criteria might be used.

Electronics research awarded in the past have been (1) Shockley, B and B (2) Kilby and Noyce, (3) Kao (Fiber Optic), and (4) Moore and Smith (CCD). Am I missing anybody?

Personally, I would like to see more evolution biology in the Nobel prizes, but, I guess, there is no "Biology" prize; just a "Medicine" prize. Oh well...

And, Michelson's "Harmonic Analyzer"


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAsM30M ... qGNW5AeEwq