Hi,
I am journalist/Editor of Avtomatika magazine ("Automation" http://www.avtomatika.com/ ). I also do HW development ( mostly digital with up to a small microcontroller, perhaps small CPLD/FPGA ,
analog but usually not above GHz stuff etc).
My path with computers started around 1987 with Sinclairs ( Spectrum, mostly QL). I learned about computers by servicing them, so you could say I was learning while earning ;o)
I was always more of thinker than a doer and many projects of mine ended in unfinished state, because I could just rarely reach that goal of perfection that would satisfy my desire.
Frankly speaking If I had to actually earn my meals through electronics or SW design, it would kill me from monothony and boredom.
I like to have jhournalistic perspective while still doing the creative work and this benefits magazine, too. In the end, our advertisers and readers can contact staff that has some experience and theoretical knowledge instead of being purely into Photoshop/Pagemaker graphics pushing business.
This practice bought us into Linux world, which meant wide ecosystem with _many_ tools and practices to learn, but also affordable environment with no license strings attached that we would have to worry about. Since I just can't work with things that I don't know top to bottom, it took us quite a few years travelling across all those packages and distributions.
I started with Suse6.4 I think, but after several short forays into various other distros ended with Gentoo 1.4 and stuck with it ever since. Efer that I have rolled up my automated "Cross Linux From Scratch" distro system amongst other things, but so far staid out of serious C/C++ programming. I did many smaller utilities that I needed, and I do routinely prepare my own packages, report and patch bugs in libraries and packages etc. But so far, no major public projects - yet.
Currently, I am working on couple major things ( for me, anyway):
- my own inexpensive "puinch-high-above-your weight" component programmer that could be easily expanded, adapted and used for signal generation and acquistion
- reworking existing gEDA/PCB CAD
- EPSON inkjet printer driver that would support currently unsuported ( but cheap and really interesting) Epson inkjets, especially for PCB manufacturing and prototype design
- also deeply eyeballed Coreboot and plan to roll my own BIOS ( well, Coreboot, adapted for my board/s). But since all I have ATM moment from AMD are a couple of AM1 boards and available KAbini documentation ism kind of incomplete, I've pushed this into background at the time being. What I really want is to do it for Zen, but will wait for the documentation to arrive and during that time I'll do my audition probe with AM1.
I've gone thorugh every major document for AMD components. all Programming Manuals, all Bios and Kernel Designer Guides that concern me etc etc. I have to admit that I procesed mostly non-GPU parts until now, simply because I couldn't wrap my head around GPU stuff on the lowest level). But using my brain as a mental hammer on R600/R700/GCN ISA stuff seems to be paying off and I am actually getting my first gleans of understanding there - either that or I'm going mad ;o)
I am applying fo a full account here because it's inconvenient to have each post vetted by moderator when one has a pressing problems. If I have to wait for a few days for anyone to notice my post ( let alone answer ) that route is often not really usefull to me.
Another reason is to finally be one step closer to "AMD's ear", so to speak. I am a big name in PC industry and so far all my inqiuries for extra documentation went by largely unnoticed.
WRT so signal/noise ratio, I can't promise all my posts will be highly relevant and OT ( as LInus Torvalds said "there are the days when I forget to take my pills"), but leaving aside occasional "strong", usually politically incorrect phrase or two ( always primarily directed towards particular theme or problem, not ad persona), I am not known for political fighs and rasistic/fascistic rants etc.
I also never tried to accquaint anyne with Nigerian president/minister with sudden abundance of cache ( $$$$, not L1/L2/L3/TLB ) etc. ;o)
Branko Badrljica
Chief Editor
magazine Avtomatika
