Tag: Assembler

Microsoft recently released a historically significant open-source project on GitHub—the BASIC assembler code, co-written by Bill Gates in 1976 and developed for the MOS 6502 CPU. This source code not only represents Microsoft's early foray into personal computer software but also showcases the crucial role of the BASIC language in driving the widespread adoption of personal computers. BASIC and Microsoft's Founding Beginning: In 1975, Microsoft's two founders, Bill Gates and Paul Allen, developed their first product: BASIC, written for the Altair 8800 and running on the Intel 8080 processor. This product not only marked Microsoft's first commercial license but also laid the foundation for a business model of collaboration between software and hardware manufacturers. The following year, Bill Gates and another Microsoft engineer, Ric Weiland, ported BASIC to the MOS 6502 CPU, creating BASIC M6502 8K Ver 1.1. In 1977, Commodore licensed this version for $25,000 and used it in the Commodore PET, VIC-20, and later the Commodore 64, which sold millions of units, making BASIC the first language millions learned to use computers. The version open-sourced by Microsoft this time is BASIC M6502 1.1, containing 6955 lines of code, including a garbage collector bug that Commodore and Bill Gates jointly fixed. Interestingly, the code also contains small Easter eggs left by Gates himself, such as the tags STORDO and STORD0, which embed "MICROSOFT! ...

Jigsaw, a Google internal startup, announced the launch of its Assembler platform, which integrates multiple existing technologies to allow users to quickly verify whether images circulating online have been altered. According to the description, the Assembler platform integrates at least seven existing computing technologies, including machine learning to determine if image content has been manipulated. This is similar to a technology previously proposed by Adobe to determine the authenticity of digitally uploaded images, assisting fact-checking systems and allowing media professionals to more efficiently assess the credibility of content. The Assembler platform is currently offered free of charge. Its technology originates from contributions from scholars at the University of California, Berkeley, the University of Maryland, and the University of Naples Federico II in Italy. It uses computational methods to compare color and noise differences to determine whether image content has been post-processed, and can also determine whether facial images were generated using methods such as StyleGAN. At the same time, Jigsaw also emphasized that the impact of fake news and messages is far greater than imagined, and that the technology for creating fake news will continue to evolve over time. Therefore, in the future, Jigsaw will continue to invest in new technologies to improve the analysis and inspection effectiveness of the Assembler platform, thereby helping more people to distinguish whether content is fake.