this post was submitted on 18 Jul 2025
475 points (99.0% liked)
unix_surrealism
2722 readers
522 users here now
one should not chase the electric dream
This community is for sharing original content related to computers, content, surrealism and wizardry.
Now that you're a surrealist, become a Techno-Mage:
- https://openbsd.org/
- https://freebsd.org/
- https://netbsd.org/
- https://dragonflybsd.org/
- https://9front.org/
- https://100r.co/site/uxn.html
- https://distrowatch.org/
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
This is how my Dad feels after designing switches for smartphones. He's always proud to say that there's likely a piece of technology in your hand that he's designed, but he also hates phones.
FUCK AUTO CORRECT
Like data switches or the physical buttons?
It's on the chips. It's similar to a data switch, but on a waaaaaaay smaller scale. If you have an Android device, it's in there.
We've argued about this a lot. He doesn't like to call them that.
I have half of an idea as to what I'm talking about, I am NOT an electrical engineer.
The term "electronic switch" is so old. He doesn't like to use it anymore. Saying "data" helps specify what you're talking about, but it's a misnomer because the switch may serve another function. It's a whole thing, man.
Gonna guess this is related to what he's talking about: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shift_register
They actually move bits of data in and out of the CPU/ram once per 'tick' of the system-wide clock, which is usually ticking in the GHz range.
Software will handle decisions on what bits/bytes to move where, the registers are where data is electronically modified, the shifters actually move the bytes in and out.