A Solid-State HDD for Symbolics "MacIvory" Lisp Machines.

This post concerns the “MacIvory” Model 3 Lisp Machine. It is of interest strictly to bolixologists. This is a recipe for a working replacement of an ancient SCSI HDD, such as found in the MacIvory, with an inexpensive solid-state disk. You will need: A “SCSI2SD” device. Mine is a model 6, but older units may […]

Symbolics "MacIvory": PCB Photographs.

This post concerns the “MacIvory” Model 3 Lisp Machine. It is of interest strictly to bolixologists. Click on a photo to see detailed version. Machine chassis: The Ivory NuBus Board Set (i.e. the LispM itself, the Mac Quadra is otherwise ordinary): “Ivory” NuBus board, component-side: What’s under the labels? Bolix Label Part Notes 115999-B PLUS20L8 […]

Uncrating of Symbolics "MacIvory" Machine

At long last, got hold of one of these:

Serpent in ICE40, Part 2.

This article is a continuation of “Can the Serpent Cipher fit in the ICE40 FPGA?”. Below is a revision of the forward S-box of Serpent from the previous article, with all of the S-Box equations rewritten in the same form, i.e. using strictly AND, OR, and NOT operations, with none having more than six subclauses, […]

Can the Serpent Cipher fit in the ICE40 FPGA?

Current Table of Contents: The question of whether the Serpent cipher could fit in a ICE40 FPGA was posed recently, and my first thought was: why not bake what appears to be the heaviest moving part, and see how many gates it requires? Then it will be possible to estimate whether the entire thing is […]

The Google H1 Fritz Chip.

Edit (January 2023): This machine is long out of print, but NSA lackeys continue to spread “squid ink” regarding the supposed harmlessness of its Fritz chip. So, for the thick: Yes, it’s a backdoor. The CR50 bypasses any user-installed OS, and can extract arbitrary secrets from disk and memory (or silently implant “incriminating” info) via […]

The secret of the "Debug Accessory Mode" Adapter.

The exact internals of Google’s proprietary “Suzy-Q” debugging device are, at the time of this writing, unknown. However, I have found how to make an apparently-compatible device: We connect the USB-C “business end” into a Asus C101PA machine; the USB-B end into a reasonable Linux PC, where we then: echo 18d1 5014 > /sys/bus/usb-serial/drivers/generic/new_id …and […]

Open Problem: "Debug Accessory Mode" on the Asus C101PA

Edit #2: Aaaand it’s solved: echo 18d1 5014 > /sys/bus/usb-serial/drivers/generic/new_id triggers creation of /dev/ttyUSB0 … 5 , several of which spew console log… Example spew on boot. (Looks like RK’s UART..?) Edit: apparently they’re USB lines! When connected as D-/D+ through a USB B-connector, to a Linux box, we get a device that enumerates with […]

Open Problem: Forcing MaskROM Mode on the Asus C101PA

The Asus C101PA is based on a Rockchip RK3399. These have a “maskrom mode”, where if the SPI EEPROM is disabled, the chip will attempt to boot from other devices: first, NAND flash, then microSD, and then finally a USB debug mode where you can attach a A-A cable and use the rkflashtool utility to […]

Wanted: Write-Once MicroSD Card !

Allegedly these exist! — though I have only been able to find them offered for sale by the railroad car. For certain applications, nothing else will really suffice. If any of my readers know of (or wish to become) a vendor offering, in (for starters) mid-three-digit quantities: a) One Time Programmable MicroSD card b) MicroSD […]