Blogs

Why Your CPU Is Fast But Your Program Is Slow: Understanding the Memory Wall

An exploration of why fast CPUs still run slow programs, uncovering the memory wall through experiments, cache behavior, and data movement.

When Microcontrollers Struggle with Math: Building Herald

A deep dive into building Herald, a fixed-point DSP coprocessor for Tiny Tapeout, from architecture and CORDIC design to GDS layout and silicon.

You Don't Need Expensive Tools to Play with Silicon

A hands-on guide to free, open-source tools that let students design, simulate, and build real processors, no million-dollar lab required.

Why GPU Threads Aren’t What They Look Like: SIMT + Divergence Explained

An intermediate look at how GPU ‘threads’ really behave under the SIMT model, why warps share an instruction stream, and what actually happens when control flow splits.

Tiny Tone - My First Accepted Tiny-Tapeout Design

A small PWM-based audio tone generator submitted to TinyQV Tiny Tapeout — design notes and lessons learned.

RISC-V: The Linux of Hardware

At Homebrew, we talk a lot about Linux and FOSS software. But what if I told you there’s a Linux moment happening in hardware too?

What is a System-on-Chip, Really?

A gentle breakdown of what SoCs are and why I’m obsessed with them.

Aetheron: Bringing My Own SoC to Life

From wires to life: how I built and booted my own System-On-Chip using BlueSpec SystemVerilog