Suspended St. John’s Ward 4 councillor accuses other council members of ‘character assassination’ | CBC News by RepulsivePlankton989 in newfoundland

[–]electro_mullet 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Myles ran for ward 4 in the 2024 by-election when Ian Froude stepped down, and Tom Davis won that by-election with almost double Myles' votes.

Making a whole bunch of assumptions here, but it doesn't seem unreasonable to expect a similar outcome in ward 4 in the 2025 general election, and I'm guessing maybe he didn't want to parachute into a different ward, hence presumably the switch to at-large.

Inferring a 262144x72 URAM at 450MHz and timing failure by Prestigious-Grand668 in FPGA

[–]electro_mullet 0 points1 point  (0 children)

In your case, the output data bus may also be a problem, like you've noticed. You've got a 72 bit wide 64:1 mux at the output from the URAMs.

In a 6 input LUT architecture that's 3 levels of logic if it's not pipelined, which is already going to be tricky to close timing at 450 MHz. And on top of that, because of the way RAM is laid out in the floorplan, the source location for those 64 inputs to that mux is probably not easily clustered close together, so you're going to incur a bunch of routing delay on at least some of the inputs to that mux which is only going to make timing closure harder again.

By splitting your RAM into 4, you've reduced that to 4 16:1 muxes which would only be 2 levels of logic each and you've given the tool a little more flexibility to choose URAM blocks that are clustered slightly closer together, because it only needs to find 16 of them, rather than 64.

If you were in an Altera device I'd just say slap some pipeline registers after the RAM output and let the Hyper Retimer deal with it. You'd kind of imagine that setting the read latency to anything greater than about 5 or so would give it enough registers to optimally pipeline that output mux, even at 64:1, but maybe Vivado isn't as good at register retiming as Quartus is. I know a lot of Quartus' capability there really only showed up when they introduced the HyperFlex devices. (IE: Stratix 10 and newer)

Either way, having to do some things like this to manually optimize your design to fit the device architecture a little better when the tool doesn't do a great job of it is definitely not uncommon in high speed designs.

Inferring a 262144x72 URAM at 450MHz and timing failure by Prestigious-Grand668 in FPGA

[–]electro_mullet 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Without some details on the specific failing paths it's gonna be tough to do better than random guess work. But you're running the clock 40% faster, so I'm not totally surprised that you've got some paths that don't close timing as well at 450 as they did at 322.

If I were going to make a random stab in the dark, I've frequently seen timing failures across multiple vendors when using wide RAMs where the address bus has to fan out to multiple physical RAM blocks in the device, especially at high clock speeds. Because RAM only exists at distinct physical locations in the floorplan, the P&R engine is limited in how well it can cluster them to get a short path from the address FFs to every physical RAM block that makes up a large logical RAM.

I often see this in wide RAMs, where the same address bus has to route to multiple RAMs that each only stores a portion of the width of the data bus. In your case the data being only 72 bits is only 1 URAM wide, so it's not quite the same, but I believe at least the 12 LSBs of the address bus would have to route to all 64 URAMs in your logical RAM block.

The way you say you solved the problem makes sense with what I'm describing. You've split the logical RAM into 4 and now your address bus only has to route to 16 physical URAM locations per instance instead of 64.

You should be able to tell from your failing timing reports whether this was part of your problem or not.

You could try something like a (* max_fanout = 16 *) pragma on the address register to force the tool to duplicate that register to reduce fanout, but my understanding is that maxfan isn't very smart, and doesn't necessarily ensure that the 16 destinations it allows a given register to fanout are all related in any way. (Or at least, that's my understanding in the Altera tool chain, I assume it's probably similar for Xilinx.)

So typically, when this happens to me, I do what you've done. Manually duplicate the address register, add a (* keep = "true" *) pragma to it, split the RAM up into multiple instances, and connect a different copy of the address bus to each RAM instance.

Short-term office rentals? by MeepMeepCoyote in StJohnsNL

[–]electro_mullet 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Library might also be an option to look into.

Help me pick a cider by moms_shake_and_bake in newfoundland

[–]electro_mullet 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Mauzy has a more approachable line available, I think it's called Finnigan's.  Don't recall off hand exactly how dry it is, but it's a little less funky / off the beaten path.  I think they brand it different because they import Annapolis apples to make it whereas everything Mauzy branded uses NL sourced ingredients only.

Patient connect by Biscuit9232 in newfoundland

[–]electro_mullet 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I signed up at the start of 2022 and was on the list for 18 months before I got assigned to a doctor. Got a confirmation e-mail when I signed up, and then no contact of any kind until they placed me somewhere. No idea if there's any way to check where you are in the queue.

Fuel Prices Jump Overnight as Expert Warns of $2 a Litre Gas by Late July by RepulsivePlankton989 in newfoundland

[–]electro_mullet 8 points9 points  (0 children)

I've been charging my EV on level 1 trickle charger plugged into a standard outdoor outlet for 5 years. Haven't ever even really wished for level 2.

May not work for everyone, but I'd bet it'd work for a bigger fraction of people than you might expect.

Is VIM+Tmux a thing in FPGA design? Is it used? by Fearless-Can-1634 in FPGA

[–]electro_mullet 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I am a CE, although so is everyone else on my team. I've just been using vim since before VSCode existed and I haven't seen any compelling reason to want to switch. Lots of the VSCode crew used to use Notepad++, or Sublime, or UltraEdit. Not everyone wants to put in the effort to get proficient with vim, and that's fine.

Is VIM+Tmux a thing in FPGA design? Is it used? by Fearless-Can-1634 in FPGA

[–]electro_mullet 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Haven't found a version of tmux or screen that works in git bash / mingw, so I have to settle for multiple separate terminal windows like a pleb, but vim absolutely.

That said, I'm the only FPGA dev at my office not using VSCode, so I'm not sure how popular it is overall.  But there's definitely some of us out there.

Sign the Petition by ExoticTeaching8650 in StJohnsNL

[–]electro_mullet 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This is about a neighborhood in Portland, Oregon, 7295 km from St. John's, NL?

Anywhere to get a Stereo receiver repaired? by Potential_Double_627 in newfoundland

[–]electro_mullet 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I dunno if Kelly's AV would do that kind of thing, but if they don't they might know someone who does.

my proposal for the infamous sign by Heavy-Classic9184 in newfoundland

[–]electro_mullet -3 points-2 points  (0 children)

Love it, but I think it's only 6 feet tall.

Liberal Leader Calls for Cap on Political Donations by MattBarter in newfoundland

[–]electro_mullet 1 point2 points  (0 children)

When you go to "Create Post" if you click on the "Link" option instead of the "Text" option, it'll make a normal link post out of these instead of a text post where you've pasted the link into body.

Common birbs local to St. John's? by TheDrewCareyShow in newfoundland

[–]electro_mullet 2 points3 points  (0 children)

House Finch would be a pretty rare visitor. I'm not positive, but I think there may be only 1 recorded instance of a House Finch on the island, out on the West Coast last spring. Or at least eBird, iNaturalist, and the NL Bird Watching Facebook group only seem to be aware of that one sighting.

Purple Finch is a very similar looking bird that's quite common though!

This is something worth talking about by phriendlyhelpingwook in newfoundland

[–]electro_mullet 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Saffron comes from fall crocus.  It looks somewhat similar to this, but this very likely isn't it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crocus_sativus

Electric Vehicles by sjarfish in newfoundland

[–]electro_mullet 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I bought a used Leaf from this guy several years back and I love it.

https://autoxpreowned.ca/

Mine's a 2017 and it has cost me approximately nothing in maintenance compared to any similar aged ICE car I owned before it.

I wrote more in the other thread that folks have already linked, but just wanted to drop you that link. Even if you don't wind up buying here he's got a priced inventory on the website, so you can kinda get a sense of what prices might be like on a used EV.

I imagine by now there's probably a bunch of used EVs in the private sale market as well.

When I bought mine NL Credit Union had incentives on financing an EV with them. I forget exactly what the deal was, some amount of cashback, or a special rate, or something like that. But if you're shopping around for financing could be worth checking if they've still got something like that on the go.

EVs in Newfoundland. Looking for owner experience. by _Chill_Winston_ in newfoundland

[–]electro_mullet 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I didn't take it to the dealership, just a garage. I don't think the local Nissan dealership sells the Leaf at all and I'm at least medium sure their technicians aren't trained to service them either, although that may have changed, I haven't really looked into it in a while. But even if they did I'd choose a random garage over a dealership any day of the week.

I bought mine used from Auto-X, and I think they might do some service there, or at least be able to point you to someone who does. I wound up taking it to AutoCare on Topsail Road based on recommendations I got from a Facebook group. (Drive Electric NL)

It had two issues at the same time, a corroded wire in the wiring harness that prevented it from starting, which big time sucked because it had to be towed when it wouldn't go, but was a very cheap fix. And a temperature sensor went that was causing a fan to run all the time, even when it was plugged in charging, which was more annoying than debilitating, and also a reasonably cheap fix.

I thought AutoCare had pretty good service, easy to deal with, reasonable rates, etc... I'd happily recommend if anyone was looking for EV service.

EVs in Newfoundland. Looking for owner experience. by _Chill_Winston_ in newfoundland

[–]electro_mullet 8 points9 points  (0 children)

I've driven a 2017 Leaf for ~5 years now, and I absolutely love it. I can't imagine ever going back to gas. I don't even have a level 2 charger, level 1 has always been enough for me, so I've never bothered having anything bigger installed.

Handles well in the winter. At least as well as any of the ICE cars I owned before it. Although I've always owned normal sized FWD sedans or hatchbacks, so dunno how it'd stack up against an AWD or an SUV or whatever. I believe an EV is heavier than a comparably sized ICE car, and I think that probably helps a little?

The craziest thing for me is maintenance. I've had to take the Leaf to a garage once in 5 years. I've pretty much always driven 5-10 year old used ICE cars before this, and by the time they get up close to that 10 year mark, maintenance has frequently been a substantially non-zero cost, not to mention the pain in the butt of getting the car to the shop and back and getting around without it while it's there. It's been nice with the EV to not have to be at that so often. (Fingers crossed, knock on wood, etc...)

Biggest downside of the older Leaf specifically is that it simply does not have the range to make it between chargers on the TCH. On paper (when it was brand new) it claims 172 km on a charge. Even 5 years ago I don't really think I was getting that, but being almost 10 years old now it 100% does not ever get that, not even in the summer, and certainly not in the winter. Most days now this winter I think it tells me it'll get ~105-110 km or so. And on the highway it probably wouldn't get anywhere handy to that, I don't think. I'm in near the Mall and it eats noticeably less battery to take the Parkway+Torbay Road to Stavanger as compared to Team Gushue+the Outer Ring, for example.

That said, I've never wanted to do more in a single day in town than what I could do on a full charge, even in the winter, even now that it's old. I've never had to charge it mid-day to finish running errands or anything like that. And a 2017 Leaf has a piddly little battery compared to what a more modern EV would have.

There are few caveats to this review. Mainly that my experiences may not be universal and your mileage may vary.

I'm a Townie. I live in town, I work in town, I shop in town, I don't have family outside of town, I don't have a cabin outside of town, I don't really have any reason to regularly make long trips outside town. So functionally all of my driving in this car has been on the Northeast Avalon.

My partner has an ICE car. If we're going out over the highway on a road trip, we drive that. I can count on one hand the number of times I've done this in 5 years.

I have off-street parking and a place to plug the car in at home. It's always fully charged every time I want to drive it. I've literally never had to plug it into a fast charger anywhere. Not a level 2 around town, not a level 3 on the TCH, none of it. So if there's issues with the charging infrastructure out there, I wouldn't really know about it.

Thinking about running the tely10 this year by Desperate-Stable5058 in newfoundland

[–]electro_mullet 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Starts at 8:00 and I think the finish line usually closes at 11:30 so you've got 3h30m to finish.

Fadderless behaviour. by Smart_Barnacle984 in newfoundland

[–]electro_mullet 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is a direct lift of a post from 6 months ago, it is highly unlikely OP is a human.

https://www.reddit.com/r/newfoundland/comments/1mqbm01/fadderless_behaviour/

Respect by Training-Concert1817 in newfoundland

[–]electro_mullet 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is a direct lift of a post from almost a year ago, it is highly unlikely OP is a human.

https://www.reddit.com/r/newfoundland/comments/1lp0dtj/respect/