Date: Wed, 30 Jul 1997 10:54:23 -0700 (MST) From: Terry Lambert <terry@lambert.org> To: msmith@atrad.adelaide.edu.au (Michael Smith) Cc: mouth@ibm.net, msmith@atrad.adelaide.edu.au, freebsd@atipa.com, hackers@FreeBSD.ORG, terry@lambert.org Subject: Re: Sharing interrupts Message-ID: <199707301754.KAA05362@phaeton.artisoft.com> In-Reply-To: <199707300425.NAA18299@genesis.atrad.adelaide.edu.au> from "Michael Smith" at Jul 30, 97 01:55:20 pm
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> > Why should it require an electrical engineer to make a few simple > > calculations and modifications? > > Because these aren't actually "simple". It's like asking why, if all > it takes to make a nuclear explosion is a critical mass of > fissionables, it took a horde of physicists many years to get it > right. Specifically, Neutron numbers had to be determined empirically before they could be curve-fit, without quantum theory advanced enough to provide a mathematical model (you can't make a model without data to which you are trying to tailor the output of the model). The process is described in the book "The Curve of Binding Energy", a must-read book for any high-energy or nuclear physicist. They also didn't use more advanced techniques in the initial devices to allow them to reach hypercritically sooner (ie: things like a K-Alpha reflector cavity or EMP-driven magnetic binding), which would have made a "good guess" sufficient to get a moderately efficient device. But again, without the models, these techniques couldn't be developed. Well, so much for history of science... back to your regularly scheduled argument... 8-). Terry Lambert terry@lambert.org --- Any opinions in this posting are my own and not those of my present or previous employers.
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