Top all-time · #20762
MTSI
Company blog · mtsi.substack.comhardwaresystems
MTSI is the company blog at mtsi.substack.com, writing about hardware and systems. Since 2024, 3 different Hacker News readers have linked it 4 times. It is still writing: the last post was on 2025-04-24, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (1) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers link this Substack for its chip history and reverse-engineering posts, such as one that picks apart an HP Milestone chip and describes Mostek's mask tricks against copiers.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 1 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Micro Technology Services, Inc. are a team of highly skilled professionals who have been in the PCB design and manufacturing business for more than 30 years. Launched 2 years ago.
What Hacker News says?
From the neighbouring: https://mtsi.substack.com/p/we-picked-apart-the-milestone-hp > I found out many years later that Mostek had put in special mask “cheats” to prevent people from copying our chip. Mostek co-founder and chief designer Robert Proebsting had discovered a way to put a pad on top of a silicon hill, but without connecting it to the obvious trace below. A copier would be unable to see this hill that se…
Comment linking /p/we-picked-apart-the-milestone-hp
on “Testing the Z80 Chip with a 1970s Beauty”Submitted Testing the Z80 Chip with a 1970s Beauty as a story · 122 points
HN discussionSubmitted Self-Propagating Monsters as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Carhackers: Interdicting Vehicle Theft as a story · 2 points
HN discussion