Going Canadian: The Rise And Fall Of Novell

April 22, 2024 by Maya Posch 47 Comments

During the 1980s and 1990s Novell was one of those names that you could not avoid if you came even somewhat close to computers. Starting with selling computers and printers, they’d switch to producing networking hardware like the famous NE2000 and the inevitability that was Novell Netware software, which would cement its fortunes. It wasn’t until the 1990s that Novell began to face headwinds from a new giant: Microsoft, which along with the rest of the history of Novell is the topic of a recent article by [Bradford Morgan White], covering this rise, the competition from Microsoft’s Windows NT and its ultimate demise as it found itself unable to compete in the rapidly changing market around 2000, despite flirting with Linux.

Novell was founded by two experienced executives in 1980, with the name being reportedly the misspelled French word for ‘new’ (nouveau or nouvelle). With NetWare having cornered the networking market, there was still a dearth of networking equipment like Ethernet expansion cards. This led Novell to introduce the 8-bit ISA card NE1000 in 1987, later followed by the 16-bit NE2000. Lower priced than competing products, they became a market favorite. Then Windows NT rolled in during the 1990s and began to destroy NetWare’s marketshare, leaving Novell to flounder until it was snapped up by Attachmate in 2011, which was snapped up by Micro Focus International 2014, which got gobbled up by Canada-based OpenText in 2023. Here Novell’s technologies got distributed across its divisions, finally ending Novell’s story.

The MUSE Permanent Magnet Stellarator: Fusion Reactor With Off-The-Shelf Parts

April 21, 2024 by Maya Posch 24 Comments

(a) The 12 permanent magnet holder subsegments. (b) The 16 planar, circular toroidal field coils are positioned inside the water-jet cut support structure. (c) The glass vacuum vessel is joined by 3D-printed low-thickness couplers. Glass ports were hot welded to the torus. (Credit: T.M. Qian et al., 2023)

When you think of a fusion reactor like a tokamak or stellarator, you are likely to think of expensive projects requiring expensive electromagnets made out of exotic alloys, whether superconducting or not. The MUSE stellarator is an interesting study in how to take things completely in the opposite direction. Its design and construction is described in a 2023 paper by [T.M. Qian] and colleagues in the Journal of Plasma Physics. The theory is detailed in a 2020 Physical Review Letters paper by [P. Helander] and colleagues. As the head of the Stellarator Theory at the Max Planck Institute, [P. Helander] is well-acquainted with the world’s most advanced stellarator: Wendelstein 7-X.

As noted in the paper by [P. Helander] et al., the use of permanent magnets can substantially simplify the magnetic-field coils of a stellarator, which are then primarily used for the toroidal magnetic flux. This simplification is reflected in the design of MUSE, as it only has a limited number of identical toroidal field coils, with the vacuum vessel surrounded by 3D printed structures that have permanent magnets embedded in them. These magnets follow a pattern that helps to shape the plasma inside the vacuum vessel, while not requiring a power supply or (at least theoretically) cooling.

Naturally, as noted by [P. Helander] et al, a limitation of permanent magnets is their limited field strength, inability to be tuned, and demagnetization at high temperatures. This may limit the number of practical applications of this approach, but researchers at Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) recently announced in a self-congratulatory article that they will ‘soon’ commence actual plasma experiments with MUSE. The lack of (cooled) divertors will of course limit the experiments that MUSE can be used for.

From Z80 To EZ80: Porting 8-bit Sonic 2 To The TI-84+ CE

April 21, 2024 by Maya Posch 4 Comments

An unwritten rule is that if two systems runs even roughly the same CPU, you are obligated to port software between them, or at least give it a fair shake. This led [grubbycoder] down the path of porting Sonic 2 for the Sega Master System (to the eZ80-based Ti 84+ CE. Selecting this particular graphing calculator came down to the raw specs matching up the best, as although the eZ80 in the Ti 84+ runs at 48 MHz, it’s got wait states that cripple its actual performance. Since the calculator also lacks the Video Display Processor (VDP) and a few other bits of hardware, those extra cycles are crucial to compensate.

Sonic 2 on the Ti 84+ CE, courtesy of [grubbycoder]

Getting the disassembled version of the game was easy enough, as the [Sonic Retro] team has already done the heavy lifting there. The only snag there was that this was in WLA-DX assembler format, which is great if you just want to create a ROM for a Z80 system, but for the eZ80 you need a different assembler. Here SPASM-ng came to the rescue, as it targets both Z80 and eZ80-based Ti calculators in particular.

With those ducks aligned, the next task was to address the hardware differences. The calculator has no sound, so those routines had to go, and the color palettes of the Master System had to be mapped to that of the calculator. Since it’s a calculator, there were plenty of buttons for input, but ROM banking – which isn’t a thing on the Ti calculator – and the background and sprite rendering posed some issues. With that sorted, anyone with this calculator can now rejoice at having something better to play on their calculators than Snake in between heavy linear algebra sessions.

The experimental setup – a Commodore 64 is connected to a monitor through a composite video to HDMI converter, with the code cartridge inserted into the expansion port.

Trolling IBM’s Quantum Processor Advantage With A Commodore 64

April 20, 2024 by Maya Posch 8 Comments

The memory map ofthe implementation, as set within the address space of the Commodore 64 - about 15kB of the accessible 64kB RAM is used. 8kB of this is reserved for code, although most of this is unused. Each of the two bitstrings for each Pauli string is stored separately (labeled as Pauli String X/Z) for more efficient addressing. — The memory map of
the implementation, as set within the address space of the Commodore 64 – about 15kB of the accessible 64kB RAM is used.

There’s been a lot of fuss about the ‘quantum advantage’ that would arise from the use of quantum processors and quantum systems in general. Yet in this high-noise, high-uncertainty era of quantum computing it seems fair to say that the advantage part is a bit of a stretch. Most recently an anonymous paper (PDF, starts at page 199) takes IBM’s claims with its 127-bit Eagle quantum processor to its ludicrous conclusion by running the same Trotterized Ising model on the ~1 MHz MOS 6510 processor in a Commodore 64. (Worth noting: this paper was submitted to Sigbovik, the conference of the Association for Computational Heresy.)

We previously covered the same claims by IBM already getting walloped by another group of researchers (Tindall et al., 2024) using a tensor network on a classical computer. The anonymous submitter of the Sigbovik paper based their experiment on a January 2024 research paper by [Tomislav Begušić] and colleagues as published in Science Advances. These researchers also used a classical tensor network to run the IBM experiment many times faster and more accurately, which the anonymous researcher(s) took as the basis for a version that runs on the C64 in a mere 15 kB of RAM, with the code put on an Atmel AT28C256 ROM inside a cartridge which the C64 then ran from.

The same sparse Pauli dynamics algorithm was used as by [Tomislav Begušić] et al., with some limitations due to the limited amount of RAM, implementing it in 6502 assembly. Although the C64 is ~300,000x slower per datapoint than a modern laptop, it does this much more efficiently than the quantum processor, and without the high error rate. Yes, that means that a compute cluster of Commodore 64s can likely outperform a ‘please call us for a quote’ quantum system depending on which linear algebra problem you’re trying to solve. Quantum computers may yet have their application, but this isn’t it, yet.

Thanks to [Stephen Walters] and [Pio] for the tip.

End-Of-Life For Z80 CPU And Peripherals Announced

April 19, 2024 by Maya Posch 56 Comments

In a Product Change Notification (PCN) published on April 15, Zilog (now owned by Littelfuse) announced the End of Life for a range of Z80 products, specifically virtually all of the Z84C00 range. This also includes the peripherals, such as the Z84C10 range of MPUs. These are currently already marked as EoL on stores like Mouser, with Littelfuse noting that the last orders with them can be placed until June 14th of 2024. After that you’ll have to try your luck with shady EBay sellers and a lucky box of old-new-stock found in the back of a warehouse.

What this effectively means is that after just under 48 years since its launch in 1976, the Zilog Z80 will no longer be available for sale as discrete components, which is likely to primarily impact hobbyists and people who are trying to keep retro systems going. This does not mean that it’s the end of the road for Z80, however, as the eZ80 will be produced for the foreseeable future.

These new chips will of course not come in easy to drop in DIPs, making the challenge of breadboarding your own Z80-based microcomputer that much tougher. Yet one thing that definitely won’t happen is any of us witnessing the end of the era of the Z80, 6502 and 8051 architectures.

Thanks to [Techokami] for the tip.

NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter Transitions Into Stationary Testbed

April 19, 2024 by Maya Posch 22 Comments

On April 16th NASA announced the formal end to Ingenuity’s days as the first ever Martian helicopter, following its 72nd and final flight mission in January. This flight ended with a rough landing during which the helicopter’s blades got damaged and separated, leaving the plucky flying machine with its wings clipped. During the final meet-up of the Mars Helicopter Team there was cake, but none for Ingenuity as its latest data set was reviewed by the team from 304 million kilometers away. This data confirms the latest software patch allows it to work stand-alone as a data collection platform.

With these latest software changes, Ingenuity will wake up daily, activate its computers and perform a self-check of all its components before collecting sensor data and images. The main goal of this is to collect long-term performance data on the helicopter’s systems, with enough onboard memory to allow for measurements to be stored for around 20 years. This means that although the Perseverance rover will have to trundle on without its flying mission buddy, one day in the future another rover, helicopter or primate will presumably drop by to either communicate with Ingenuity if it’s still alive, or harvest its memory unit for data retrieval.

Thanks to [Mark Stevens] for the tip.

Source Code To The 1999 FPS Game Descent 3 Released

April 17, 2024 by Maya Posch 48 Comments

On April 16th of this year, [Kevin Bentley] released the source code to the Sci-Fi FPS game Descent 3. Originally released in 1999 for Windows, the game has you control a flying ship which you have to guide through both in- and outdoor environments, while shooting at robots that have been infected with an alien virus as you try to save the solar system. It was later also ported to Mac OS and Linux, but was considered a commercial flop due to low sales.

As one of the original developers, [Kevin] explains that one of the goals of this code release is to give the game a second life, by cleaning up the C++ code and using new APIs. Original proprietary audio and video libraries from Interplay were removed, which means that some work is required before one can build a fresh copy of the game from this code base. That said, the released code is the latest 1.5 patch level, with the Mac OS and Linux support. Even if the original Descent games weren’t your cup of tea, it’s still great to see games being preserved and updated like this.

Thanks to [Phil Ashby] for the tip.