OK I admit it isn't actually a movie but is instead an hour-long talk broken down into 10 minute segments. The subject matter is how to reverse engineer a 6502 microprocessor using acid, graphics and transistor level simulation. We covered the basic idea back in September 2010 (see Transistor level 6502 simulation) and the video is basically a presentation of the same ideas with an update.
In case you missed the earlier news item, what happens is that the group take the top off a chip, eat away at it with acid and then photograph the layers that are revealed. From the photographs they then create a drawing that is essentially a map of the chip and from this they can identify transistors, diodes, resistors, capacitors and interconnections. The graphic serves as the basic input to a simulator written in JavaScript which can take programs and run them as if it was the native hardware - only slower of course.
The video presentations are fairly technical and go into a lot of detail about the 6502 and assembly language but if you are a hardware oriented sort of guy its a lot of fun.
Java EE 7 is being "launched" with a video "Licensed To Code". Get it - EE7 and 007? Or is Oracle letting slip that it really would like us to need a license to code?
For many students June is the beginning of the long summer vacation. But, with fewer competing pressures, it could be an ideal time to start a MOOC - or perhaps complete one you started and gave up on [ ... ]
