Re: Remember "Bit-Slice" Chips ?

On 15/12/2024 04:57, 186282@ud0s4.net wrote:

"seems close enough"
   is NOT good enough. Planes, spacecraft, bridges, huge
   buildings, medical implants - GOTTA refine with the
   hard-core/hard-math tools.

I think you would be aghast at how "seems good enough" guides most engineering design.
No-one accurately measures every single component that goes into a design.
At best they do a full test on the final product.
There is always room for the black swan unit where all the tolerances were exactly the wrong way.
In general it is cheaper to simply scrap that one, or if it escapes into the wild, give the customer a replacement.
The development algorithm of the racing Cosworth V8 was "remove metal till it breaks, then put that bit back again".
And we can only calculate what we thought of. Some failure modes are completely unexpected.
Some of the most durable civil engineering was done by Victorian engineers who were not able to do the calculations. Their conservative over-enginering resulted in structures that stand good even to day.
Admittedly their failures are long gone :-( (Tay bridge, any one?)
--
"The great thing about Glasgow is that if there's a nuclear attack it'll look exactly the same afterwards."
Billy Connolly