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Posted by Jaso1024 7 hours ago

Show HN: A game where you build a GPU(jaso1024.com)
Thought the resources for GPU arch were lacking, so here we are
436 points | 125 comments
rustybolt 4 hours ago|
This is great!

Some comments:

- I didn't like the "truth tables" one, I got many duplicate questions and for some reason I got only one second for the first question. The rest of the questions I managed to answer correctly but I still got only one start out of three?

- I got very confused by the capacitor. Capacitors do not have an "enable" gate! In fact, in 2.7 (1T1C) you are supposed to build the enable gate -- with a transistor. So currently, you can just simply not build the enable gate and use the one already in the primitive, meaning you don't need the NMOS gate at all.

Was this made using LLM-assistence? (Not judging, I'm just interested!) I'd love to hear more about your workflow and how you managed to produce a good UI as it's something I couldn't do if my life depended on it, and it's a skill I'd like to learn.

Jaso1024 4 hours ago||
Oh, I didn't notice this capacitor bug, I changed it to add an enable gate for 2.4 (for context, i created 2.4 after 2.7 b/c i thought 2.7 wasn't obvious enough for some ppl). 2.4 kind of needs the enable pin b/c of how my simulation system works. Yeah, I felt pretty conflicted on the capacitors whilst building, theres actually a note about this in the capacitor info block in later levels, but I couldn't really make a true capacitor compatible with the underlying simulation system I had built (I should have thought it through from the start).

Ill fix the truth tables bug (i think i know the issue), the stars come from playing in endless mode

I used claude quite a bit, it struggled through a lot of this (wiring and simulation systems in particular), but managed to crank this out, for the graphics i was extremely detailed in terms of what i wanted i'd say

tuetuopay 4 hours ago||
Since we're in feedback mode, 2.16 has no BitLineBar reference to feed to the comparators. I had to cheese the level by connecting the "capacitor" outputs straight to the outputs, and it worked.

On the capacitor though, the capacitor level is weird as you don't build the capacitor charge system with transistors. Though I definitely get that the simulation engine is for digital stuff, not analog :)

Also a general feedback on the time-based challenges: dial them back. A lot. Most of them are just not interesting and have zero learning value. In fact, the "DRAM refresh" one just made me quit the game (clicking on 8 rows to keep them fresh). Okay, 10s is enough, I got the point. No need to hold up for a whole minute. Kinda same for the hex one. However, some of them are good, and the UI for the binary ones is great, especially for the two's complement one!

Small nitpick on the UI: some blocks don't have their connections aligned with the grid, making the wiring OCD-incompatible. But that's minor. It's a shame since the wire routing algorithm works quite well overall, and I'm impressed an LLM could produce that good of an UI!

Otherwise, quite a fun little game, if slow paced when one already knows some bits of digital logic. Keep up!

Jaso1024 4 hours ago||
lol, I encountered the same thing w/ the Dram one in particular during testing (I passed it by using number keys, but probably was a sign to remove)

Thanks, I appreciate all the feedback, fixes coming in the next push

BoiledCabbage 2 hours ago||
Agreed, truth tables one is important. But it's backwards, you test people on truth tables before teaching them.

If someone is seeing this for the first time they may have never seen some of those gates and you quiz them.

Then finally after passing the quiz, you define NAND and NOR and Inverter.

Swap the teaching one to be the intro to the truth tables one.

Second bit of feedback is the timer. Increase the time allotted. I know them very well and still was struggling to get all the input correct before the timer hit. Or consider possibly just eliminating the timer completely - if your goal is to be sure that they know them.

Jaso1024 1 hour ago||
good point, made an update that added difficulty levels to the minigames (handles the timer), and i'll probably move the truth tables minigame to after the user builds the truth tables, thx
rg2004 7 minutes ago||
I would have really liked to have a temporary node to test the outputs. Better than that, I would have liked to see the truth table update in real time without running the tests.
roadbuster 4 hours ago||
I worked on deep sub-micron, full custom mixed-signal integrated circuits for more than a decade, and I can't pass the first level.

> Wire an NMOS transistor so that when In is 1, the output is pulled to ground (0). When In is 0, the output should be unconnected (Z).

Certainly:

(a) The nMOS has 3 connections: its drain is only connected to the output (no +Vdd supply), it's source is tied to ground, it's gate is tied to the signal input

(b) When the gate (input) is driven high, the nMOS transistor turns "on," connecting the output to the source (which is grounded). This acts as a "pull-down network"

(c) When the gate is driven low, the nMOS turns "off," leaving no connection to the output. This is equivalent to a "high-impedance" / "unconnected" / "Z" output

Fails 1/2 tests

(Edit) - I thought the light grey, thick line on the background grid was a wire from "input" to the transistor's gate. It is not. You need to explicitly add a wire from "input" to gate :\

mistidoi 4 hours ago||
I'm a total doofus with no relevant experience and neither could I.
Jaso1024 4 hours ago||
Adding intro levels today!
Jaso1024 4 hours ago|||
lol, mb. As in understand it, its that the colors of the bg make it seem like its wires when its not, I'll change the color theme a bit to fix (plz correct me if my understanding is wrong)
roadbuster 4 hours ago|||
Yes, that's the issue: the (thick) solid grey "major axis" lines on the background seemed to be a wire.

If I could make a recommendation, get rid of the grid lines entirely and only have 'dots' at regular spacing. Here's what Cadence Virtuoso looks like (the most popular circuit schematic tool for integrated circuit design):

https://www.eecs.umich.edu/courses/eecs311/f09/tutorials/cad...

Jaso1024 4 hours ago||
Will do, thx! Coming in the next push
dcreater 5 minutes ago||||
the part that tripped me up is 0 showing in deep RED and I thought that meant I was doing something wrong. I came here, read this and realized I was actually right and then pressed the Run tests button and passed. This is a UX thing you'd want to address
varenc 43 minutes ago|||
consider a colorblind mode that uses patterns instead of colors for those of us that are color-challenged
brcmthrowaway 1 hour ago||
Did you switch to software?
txr 4 hours ago||
Anyone who likes this should also take a look at: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1444480/Turing_Complete/ At the end you have your own CPU with your own assembly language. Sadly stuck in early access since forever with some very rough edges
battxbox 4 hours ago|
Love this game. Does anyone know if developers are still active?
txr 4 hours ago|||
Steam discussions seem to imply there is still something happening https://steamcommunity.com/app/1444480/discussions/0/7674379... But communication is definitely subpar. I completed it a few years ago, was fun but having prior knowledge about digital circuits is a must have in my opinion.
Damjanski 4 hours ago|||
wow - will try it today!
Anonyneko 5 hours ago||
This looks really cool, although I personally seem to lack the absolute basic knowledge that is required to make sense of the tutorial messages, so I couldn't even figure out the first level.
Jaso1024 5 hours ago||
Thanks for telling me this, I actually made an act 0 that went through the basics + physics of the pmos and nmos transistors, but i scrapped it b/c i couldn't get it to look like I wanted it to, will add it back
StableAlkyne 5 hours ago||
Glad I'm not the only one! I love these kinds of games; played the heck out of Turing Complete and Zachtronics' Engineer of the People... But I'd never heard of 3 state logic until today.

Really threw me for a loop! I'm still trying to wrap my head around making level 3's NOT gate.

This is such a cool idea, definitely the first 3-state circuit puzzler I've seen! Throw a cute story over it and I bet this would get some takers on Steam.

dcreater 3 minutes ago||
Nice vibe coded project. There are a few UX holes i've encountered so far: No way to re-invoke the intro modals in each lesson after dismissal? No way to go to the next lesson if we dismiss the modal (have to go back to the tree and then click the next lesson)
yuppiepuppie 4 hours ago||
Neat idea!

Ive added this to the HN Arcade! https://hnarcade.com/games/games/mvidia

Jaso1024 4 hours ago|
Thank!
frmersdog 4 hours ago||
You need to have a, "Okay, I've tried 10 times, it's not working, what's the answer?" button. That will help not just us rubes who can't understand, but also in the off chance something is broken and even "correct" answers are being rejected.
Jaso1024 4 hours ago|
makes sense, adding to the next push (in the interim, u can also use the copy circuit button to ask gpt if ur correct or not), also, what level is this? (if u dont mind me asking)
sarvagyavaish 4 hours ago||
Oh that's what the "copy circuit" button does. I have been trying to paste circuits from previous levels into subsequent ones and wondering what I was doing wrong
Jaso1024 3 hours ago||
lol, mb; ill make that more clear (ill also give the ability to copy things cross level and intra-level)
sarvagyavaish 1 hour ago||
Nw! This is an excellent game overall. I have always had a REALLY hard time understanding the electronics behind gates and this has been super helpful. I understood the physics behind NMOS and PMOS, and separately what logic tables represented and could be combines for higher order execution. The first few levels, constructing NANDs and NORs, has always been a puzzle - until today! Thank you <3
Liebmann5 17 minutes ago||
I have been looking for something like this for so longggg! THANK YOU
mdtrooper 47 minutes ago|
It sounds great, it remembers to me:

- https://www.nand2tetris.org/

- https://nandgame.com/

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