Oxide and Friends

Hardware engineering team field notes: resistor selection, supply chain substitutions, and debugging failure details, dense first-hand experience

Deep reads here1 / 188 episodes

Cadence~1 every 9.1 days

Latest2026-09-16

Official transcriptincluded

TopicsScience & Medicine

PriorityT3

1:23:50

Oxide and Friends 0916

A $3 Clock Buffer Nearly Brought an Entire Computer Company to a Standstill

After AI demand exploded, ninth-generation PCIe clock buffers were swept off the shelves, and the substitute part tripped over a hidden difference in HCSL termination. What saved the line in the end wasn't a chip — it was a single 0201 resistor.

8 Points 7 Quotes Hardware supply chainPCIe