Day: 5 March 2022

Analog Computing

This is an interesting video about how we can use analog computing. It seems a good use in matrix calculation used in AI.

All our technology is digital but we are reaching limits (power usage, physical limits, etc) and the “boom” in AI seems to benefit from analog computing.

RISC-V

I have been reading this book during my lunch brakes for several month. Most of the times just a couple of pages to be honest as generally my knowledge of CPU architecture is very poor. I really enjoyed this subject in Uni and this book was one of my favourites during that time. It was like a bible of CPU architecture. And Patterson is an author in both books.

I remember that there were too main architectures RISC vs CISC. In a very summarize way, RISC were simple instruction that were easy to parallelized and executed (with more instructions to execute) and CISC were complex instruction (few to execute) but that were difficult to scale. So let’s say simplicity (RISC) “won” the race in CPU architecture.

RISC-V is an open standard so anybody can produce CPUs for executing those instruction. So you can easily get your hands dirty getting a board.

One of the reason of RISC-V is to learn from all the architectures mistakes and provide a design that works for any type of processor (embedded to super-computers), is efficient, modular and stable.

The book compares RISC-V with current ISAS from ARM-32, MIPS-32, Intel x86-32, etc. Based on cost, simplicity, performance , isolation from implementation, room for growth, code size and ease of programming.

There were many parts of the book that I couldn’t really understand but I found the chapter 8 quite interesting. This is about how to compute data concurrently. The best know architecture is Single Instruction Multiple Data (SIMD). The alternative is Vector architecture. And this is used in RISC-V. The implementation details are too our of my league.

In summary, it was a nice read to refresh a bit my CPU architecture knowledge.

Paella de Verduras

After dealing with too much meat lately, I fancied some vegetables and specially a paella. So I decided to do a paella with only veggies last weekend. I found this video that I liked but at the end I went a bit wild as I stopped paying attention and I didnt have fresh artichokes.

Ingredients:

  • 1 big leek (instead of artichokes) sliced
  • 5 garlic cloves (with skin)
  • 1 bunch of asparagus
  • 2 onions
  • 1 glass of white wine ( I used red)
  • 3 tomates grated
  • paprika
  • 1 carrot diced
  • 1 red pepper + 1 green pepper
  • 1 courgette
  • 1 cauliflower
  • 1/4 glass of soy (dark) sauce
  • 1 stock veg cube + 1 .5l boiling water
  • 1 cup of paella rice

Process:

  • Heat up the paella dish, pour a gulp of olive oil once it is hot.
  • Fried the garlic gloves a bit. Then add the asparagus.
  • Once they are fried a bit, retire to a dish.
  • Put the paella at low heat now.
  • Fried the leek with the same oil in the paella dish. Till taking color.
  • Then add the diced onions. Add salt and pepper. Stir all of them until taking some color.
  • Add wine. Stir until it evaporates mostly.
  • Add the tomate, mix well. Add paprika. Taste it!
  • Add the carrot, peppers, courgette and cauliflower. Fry for a bit.
  • Add the soy sauce. This will add quite a salty taste.
  • Add the stock veg cube with the boiling water. Stirr all well.
  • Add the fried garlic.
  • After 3-5 minutes, add the rice. Spread the rice all around the dish.
  • Dont stirr anymore. Increase the heat.
  • Wait until the rice starts to come up on top.
  • Try to move the paella dish so the water evaporates evenly.
  • At the end you want a bit of a crust on the bottom (socarrat!!!)
  • Once it is ready, put the asparagus on top.

In my case, as I used leeks, they can burn very easily but I was luck and it was just a bit.

It looked nice from outside. I had a bit of socarrat. And tasted good! Maybe the dark soy sauce was too much dark 🙂

Chorizo

I have two very good memories from my childhood regarding to food: baking at my mother’s hometown and making chorizos.

Last winter I managed to go back to the bakery and refresh those memories. I am super happy I did it.

Now it was the turn for the chorizos. But I was cautious about this so I join a course for making sausages from a well-know company so I could get some intro and refresh.

The process that my mother followed was very simple. Ground a ham (by my parents best friends who were butchers), salt, (sweet) paprika and I think some garlic. Mix all together very well. Fry a portion of the mix to taste the spices. Then using pig’s intestines with a sausage filler/stuffer, make the crorizos. Then using a cord, make the portions. Finally, hang them and let then dry for around two weeks.

So in this course we made only sausages with different spices but the process is the same as chorizo, only the spices change.

I enjoyed the course, I brought some flashbacks from my childhood about mixing the meat, stuffing, tasting the mix (that was super delicious!!!!) and then the patience to let them dry. These were the only chorizos I liked. Anything else, was tasteless or had too much fat.

So I brought home several kilos from the course. I some some for cooking my week lunch and frozen others for another occasion. But most of them, I decided to dry them like my mother used to do. I felt so humble when I saw the result. It was like back home.

So I kept the sausages hanging from a sweeping stick wrapped with newspapers. Out of direct day light and using a heater at night while I was at home. For two weeks.

And they came out fine!

Although, they have too much fat. They are not chorizos, it is more like small salchichon.

As they are too manhy for me. I am keeping them in glass jars. They will not last many months though. But use to eat them quickly and cry when some chorizos went off. I was thinking in put them in oil but I wanted the dryness.

This reminds me biltong. Very similar idea, but I havent tried in a couple of years.

So I am happy with the experience and I am decided to make properly chorizos next winter. Try to call the butcher where I did the course, tell them I want to buy a minced ham (with very few fat, I dont care what people say) and the intestines, then do it at home like the old times.