Talk:Richard's Controller

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[edit] Introduction

"The Richard’s Controller is a clever method (...)"

"Clever"... this does not appear to be neutral IMHO. --Edcolins 20:39, 17 February 2007 (UTC)

Well, it was clever, but it was also a pretty obvious use of msi. Others had seen this and created similar circuits.

Another problem is that by 1973, when this was published, the circuit was already obsolete. Field programmable read only memory (prom), with 32 8-bit words, primitive by todays standards, but a wonder at the time, had become available. This was much more versatile. Not only was the design easier, the machine could be modified by replacing the prom.

I believe that the article stresses the use of the technique in design, not implementation of state machines. Dhatfield 14:26, 10 November 2007 (UTC)

AJim 03:55, 19 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Expert review

The following discussion is archived. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section.

The result was: There was no conclusive answer, I will reset the date counter. --B. Wolterding (talk) 11:33, 29 November 2007 (UTC)

This review has been announced on the talk page of WikiProject Computer science. Comments should be added on this page, below.

This review has been announced on the talk page of WikiProject Technology on Nov 08. Comments should be added on this page, below.

As part of the Notability wikiproject, I am trying to sort out whether this topic is notable enough to have its own article. Could you have a look at it? It's not clear to me whether this design is in fact widely used, or whether it is just something that was described in a single research article. The only hits I get on Google Books for the title refer to King Richard III.

Also, you might want to add the article to your project (I don't know why it is listed for WikiProject Philosophy).

Your opinions are welcome; please add your comments below. --B. Wolterding 14:10, 26 October 2007 (UTC)

  • Listing this also at WikiProject Technology... --B. Wolterding 13:19, 8 November 2007 (UTC)

Google? Google is your guideline for notability of controller design techniques? Although not an expert in this particular controller type, regarding a strict "notability test", mention in a 3rd edition 2001 text on Digital Design verifies notability as far as I'm concerned and the content is certainly good, clear and concise. Lets go and hunt stubs, rather than decent articles regarding (relatively) specialised fields.

Request to author: Please provide one or two additional references to this work from other secondary sources to provide a conclusive answer. Dhatfield 14:26, 10 November 2007 (UTC)

  • No, Google is not my guideline here. I'm not an expert in controller design. But if this concept is notable, one would think that it appears in typical textbooks on the subject. Since there seem to be no hits on Google books, that makes notability at least doubtable. So I asked for an expert review. --B. Wolterding 16:11, 10 November 2007 (UTC)
    • I will reset the date counter of the notability tag for now, to allow for more sources to be provided. But the sources given do not convinve me - Is the concept mentioned in passing in that book or is it really in-depth coverage? --B. Wolterding (talk) 11:33, 29 November 2007 (UTC)
The above discussion is preserved as an archive. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section.


[edit] modern information age

The article currently says A few examples of devices that need a complex controller are CPUs, Graphics Cards, Network Interfaces, Hard Drives, Bus Controllers (USB, PCI, Firewire…) The modern information age would not be possible without complex controller designs like the Richard’s Controller. which is technically true, but misleading. It's like saying "the modern information age would not be possible without water, such as the water found on Europa (moon)".

Yes, all these devices are using "complex controllers". Yes, Richard's controller is a kind of complex controller. However, people making these kinds of designs are not using, and often have never have heard of, Richard's controller.

For a while I suspected that perhaps this idea of a "counter" in a "complex controller" may have originated with Richard, and people are using it without realizing who invented it -- like people today use electric lights without realizing electric lights were invented by Francis Hauksbee in 1705.

If anyone can point to any specific "modern information age" device that uses a Richard's controller (or a controller derived from it), please point it out in the article. I doubt any are -- my understanding is that "modern information age" devices use complex controllers derived from the 1951 Maurice Wilkes microprogramming concept.

I think all text about "control units in general" should move to the control unit article, the same way text about water in general should go in the "water" article (rather than leaving in the Europa article). --68.0.124.33 (talk) 17:18, 11 April 2008 (UTC)