• Hardware Jargon

    From Lawrence D'Oliveiro@ldo@nz.invalid to comp.misc on Tue Jun 17 09:06:31 2025
    From Newsgroup: comp.misc

    This interview <https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/ssds/smi-ceo-says-no-pcie-6-0-ssds-for-pc-until-2030-as-nvidia-demands-100m-iops-wallace-c-kou-on-the-future-of-ssds>
    with the boss of a company that sells a range of low-level hardware
    components had my head spinning in places. Spot the terms and acronyms
    that are unknown to a software type like me. ;)

    Here’s a word that had me baffled for a while: “retimer”. I couldn’t imagine what that was. My undergrad science background jumped to the
    conclusion that it rhymed with “polymer”, and that it might be some
    kind of chemical compound or biological cellular component. But no, it
    is a “re-timer”, which is a component used to extend the reach of the
    new PCIe 6.0 spec.
    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From mm0fmf@none@invalid.com to comp.misc on Tue Jun 17 11:27:40 2025
    From Newsgroup: comp.misc

    On 17/06/2025 10:06, Lawrence D'Oliveiro wrote:
    This interview <https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/ssds/smi-ceo-says-no-pcie-6-0-ssds-for-pc-until-2030-as-nvidia-demands-100m-iops-wallace-c-kou-on-the-future-of-ssds>
    with the boss of a company that sells a range of low-level hardware components had my head spinning in places. Spot the terms and acronyms
    that are unknown to a software type like me. ;)

    Here’s a word that had me baffled for a while: “retimer”. I couldn’t imagine what that was. My undergrad science background jumped to the conclusion that it rhymed with “polymer”, and that it might be some
    kind of chemical compound or biological cellular component. But no, it
    is a “re-timer”, which is a component used to extend the reach of the
    new PCIe 6.0 spec.

    If you don't work in the industry you wont know what the terms mean.
    Retimers have been around a long time. It all depends if you move in a
    world where they get used.

    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Lawrence D'Oliveiro@ldo@nz.invalid to comp.misc on Tue Jun 17 22:08:27 2025
    From Newsgroup: comp.misc

    On Tue, 17 Jun 2025 11:27:40 +0100, mm0fmf wrote:

    If you don't work in the industry you wont know what the terms mean.
    Retimers have been around a long time.

    “Repeater” is the common term in networks, telephony, radio/TV broadcast etc.

    In analog video, there were these things called “Timebase Correctors”, or “TBCs”.
    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Ethan Carter@ec1828@somewhere.edu to comp.misc on Mon Jun 23 22:13:22 2025
    From Newsgroup: comp.misc

    mm0fmf <none@invalid.com> writes:

    On 17/06/2025 10:06, Lawrence D'Oliveiro wrote:
    This interview
    <https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/ssds/smi-ceo-says-no-pcie-6-0-ssds-for-pc-until-2030-as-nvidia-demands-100m-iops-wallace-c-kou-on-the-future-of-ssds>
    with the boss of a company that sells a range of low-level hardware
    components had my head spinning in places. Spot the terms and acronyms
    that are unknown to a software type like me. ;)
    Here’s a word that had me baffled for a while: “retimer”. I couldn’t >> imagine what that was. My undergrad science background jumped to the
    conclusion that it rhymed with “polymer”, and that it might be some
    kind of chemical compound or biological cellular component. But no, it
    is a “re-timer”, which is a component used to extend the reach of the
    new PCIe 6.0 spec.

    If you don't work in the industry you wont know what the terms
    mean. Retimers have been around a long time. It all depends if you
    move in a world where they get used.

    It's also the case that vocabulary sort of evolves even though no
    meaningful changes take place in an area. In the beginning of the
    development of a certain area, people still use old words to describe
    some new thing---but over time, that new thing becomes old and people do
    come up with words and slang for it.

    For one's self education, I think avoiding these terms to oneself
    happens to be a good thing---computer tools such as search engines and
    whatnot actually help us quite a bit in taking in the crowd's lingo.
    But I don't find it too useful to quickly incorporate all the new lingo
    into one's own vocabulary---the burden on the mind is heavier. Despite
    what people do in practice with their own vocabulary, simplicity
    actually works in our favor. (On average, after you look up a term two
    or three times, you internalize it.)
    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Lawrence D'Oliveiro@ldo@nz.invalid to comp.misc on Tue Jun 24 01:33:18 2025
    From Newsgroup: comp.misc

    On Mon, 23 Jun 2025 22:13:22 -0300, Ethan Carter wrote:

    It's also the case that vocabulary sort of evolves even though no
    meaningful changes take place in an area.

    One case that immediately jumps to mind for me, as a software developer,
    is “dependency injection”. I found out it was just what I had been referring to as “callbacks”.
    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2