Collaborate Disseminate
The basics of digital logic are pretty easy to master, and figuring out how the ones and zeroes flow through various kinds of gates is often an interesting exercise. Taking things down a level and breaking the component AND, OR, …read more
Continue reading Interference Patterns Harnessed for Optical Logic Gates
Digital security is always a moving target, with no one device or system every being truly secure. Whether its cryptographic systems being compromised, software being hacked, or baked-in hardware vulnerabilities, it seems there is always a hole to be found. [Max Justicz] has a taste for such topics, and decided …read more
With more and more embedded systems being connected, sending state information from one machine to another has become more common. However, sending large packets of data around on the network can be bad both for bandwidth consumption and for power usage. Sure, if you are talking between two PCs connected with a gigabit LAN and powered from the wall, just shoot that 100 Kbyte packet across the network 10 times a second. But if you want to be more efficient, you may find this trick useful.
As a thought experiment, I’m going to posit a system that has a database …read more
A few semesters back, [Jordan] was in an Intro to Hardware Security course at CMU. The final project was open ended, and where some students chose projects like implementing a crypto algorithm or designing something on an FPGA, [Jordan] decided to do something a little more ambitious. He wanted to decapsulate and reverse engineer an IC. No, this isn’t taking a peek at billions of transistors — [Jordan] chose a 74-series Quad XOR for this project — but it does show what goes into reverse engineering silicon, and how even simple chips can be maddeningly confusing.
The first step to …read more
I published the following diary on isc.sans.org: “Obfuscating without XOR“. Malicious files are generated and spread over the wild Internet daily (read: “hourly”). The goal of the attackers is to use files that are: not know by signature-based solutions not easy to read for the human eye That’s why many
[The post [SANS ISC] Obfuscating without XOR has been first published on /dev/random]
Computers built using discrete logic chips? Seen it. Computers from individual transistors? Impressive, but it’s been done. A computer built out of electromechanical relays? Bring on the ozone!
The aptly named [Clickity Clack]’s new YouTube channel promises to be very interesting if he can actually pull off a working computer using nothing but relays. But even if he doesn’t get beyond the three videos in the playlist already, the channel is definitely worth checking out. We’ve never seen a simpler, clearer explanation of binary logic, and [Clickity Clack]’s relay version of the basic logic gates is a great introduction to …read more
Continue reading Relay Computer Starts with an Adder that Makes a Racket
Computers built using discrete logic chips? Seen it. Computers from individual transistors? Impressive, but it’s been done. A computer built out of electromechanical relays? Bring on the ozone!
The aptly named [Clickity Clack]’s new YouTube channel promises to be very interesting if he can actually pull off a working computer using nothing but relays. But even if he doesn’t get beyond the three videos in the playlist already, the channel is definitely worth checking out. We’ve never seen a simpler, clearer explanation of binary logic, and [Clickity Clack]’s relay version of the basic logic gates is a great introduction to …read more
Continue reading Relay Computer Starts with an Adder that Makes a Racket