As I watched this video, I had many thoughts. Here are some of them:
1) The complexity of the ASML machine is a reminder of how far IC technology has moved from the world of homebrew ham radio. I know others will take different views, but for me, it is a reminder that these chips -- which are now commonly used in cell phones, for example -- have no real place in rigs that we would call homebrew.
2) The technology they use is really amazing. Laser lights hitting tin droplets three times as the tin falls. Explosions inside the machine that are like miniature super novae.
3) Older guys play a big role in all of this.
4) All the attention today is focused on AI and data centers. But the tech there seems simplistic when compared to the ASML machines that make the chips.
Please watch the Veritasium video that appears above. Then please put you comments in the space below.
Yes, it's a very complex machine, but you can use simpler ones to create discrete transistors. Aside from that, the only real home brewers were the people living in the stone age, but they weren't building any radioes.
ReplyDeleteYes you can wind your own inductors, but do you mine and refine your own copper?
What is homebrew and what isn't? Where to draw the technological line? In 1947?
Sure, we do not mine our own copper. But I continue to think there is a big difference between using a chip from one of these amazing machines, and homebrewing a rig from discrete parts. This is a matter of personal preference. I prefer to stick to the old ham radio definition of homebrew. That would -- in my view -- not include using chips from this machine. I think the amazing complexity of this machine is in fact a reminder if that incompatibility. But again, this is a matter of personal preference.
ReplyDeleteBill, would this guy count as homebrew: Sam Zeloof. Homebrew transistors and IC's in his home.
ReplyDeleteAnd the connection to ham radio? Well maybe not Sam, but how about KD2MRG, Adam, his brother. Maybe they will make custom IC for amateur radio someday?
Mike: Take it to the opposite extreme. A chip with millions (if not billions) of transistors comes out of the ASML machine. All you have to do to turn it into a "rig" is to power it up and supply some software. So maybe you just have to take the chip and plug it into a socket. Did you homebrew that rig? Some would say yes, I would say no. I would say that the ASML machine really built the rig. 73 Bill
ReplyDeleteWe homebrewers are not using anything like parts with these densities which are reserved for phone and GPU or AI inference processors. Its all a matter of where you draw the line. An NE602 has a dozen transistors and we can mostly understand it. An Si5351 is in another class. I am happy to accept microelectronics as black boxes and to try to understand and work with them as functional building blocks. Im never going to understand what's inside a microcontroller but I am happy to load it up with some fairly basic code and use it as the control center of a transceiver. For me, the line I haven't crossed is into the internals of DSP transceivers. But I hope to when I get more time.
ReplyDeleteAll that said, these ASML machines are mind boggling. Someone in the comments wrote that they are the best evidence of Aliens visiting and leaving their technology behind.
Paul VK3HN.
Thanks Paul: Yes, I think the ASML machines are mind boggling. But I think they also represent an extreme that illustrates a good question: If you use a chip like this, who really built your rig? Did you, or did the ASML machine? This is a matter of personal preference. I too will use an NE-602 or an LM-386, because these chips are understandable. Not so with chip out of the ASML machine. 73 Bill N2CQR
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