Tan Shuai
谭帅 · 譚帥 · Tán Shuài
Chip and systems engineer, founder. I build the chips, machines and code that AI runs on.
This is my engineering notebook: the stack I work on, the technical notes I have written along the way, the silicon I helped ship and the patents behind it. Every note links to its full text on tanshuai.com.
The stack
- Silicon
- Full-custom and SoC design: a Bitcoin mining ASIC at MicroBT; mobile multimedia, audio and video processors at Vimicro.
- Hardware
- The platforms and test equipment around the chips, such as what a low-cost DDR3, DDR4, LPDDR3 and LPDDR4 memory tester needs.
- Software
- Storage and file systems, firmware update and communication protocols: the fields my patents cover.
- AI
- The AI agent products that now run on that stack; lately, a blind test of which model describes photos best.
Technical notes
Chips and hardware
-
Ultra Low-Cost DDR3, DDR4, LP-DDR3 & LP-DDR4 Memory Test System
What a memory tester needs to cost a fraction of big ATE: 800 to 3200 MT/s, the four standards on one platform, a hardware pattern generator and accurate low-voltage power.
-
Full Custom ASIC Design Secrets for Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Mining
A paper on the full-custom methods behind mining ASICs, from design technique and physical layout to verification, and how they decide power efficiency and hashrate.
AI
-
Best AI Model for Captioning and Tagging Photos: GPT-6 vs Claude 5.5 Blind Benchmark
Ten GPT-6 and Claude 5.5 configurations titled, captioned, keyworded and filed 50 real photos, scored blind: GPT-6.1 Sol 9.72 out of 10, Claude Opus 5.5 8.57, and what each costs at official API prices.
Git and developer tools
-
AWS CodeCommit: The GitHub Large File Storage (Git LFS) Free Alternative
Where Git LFS gets expensive and awkward, and why CodeCommit can keep large files in plain Git instead.
-
Migrate a GitHub LFS (Git Large File Storage) repository to AWS CodeCommit
The move step by step: a mirror clone,
git lfs migrate exportto fold the large files back into history, thenpush --all. -
Reset/Restore All subdirectories of Git
Two commands to put every subdirectory back as committed:
git clean -xfdf -- ., thengit checkout HEAD -- .. -
Electron Build Tools ERROR: Failed to run “choco install pywin32 --yes”
Why Electron's build tools cannot install pywin32 through Chocolatey on Windows (the package's download link is gone) and how to get past it.
-
Get current commit id of Git and update to package.json
Stamp the short commit hash into
package.jsonfrom an npmpredevscript withgit rev-parse --short HEAD.
Linux and macOS
-
Quickly Convert Markdown to Academic-Style Paper PDF on macOS
Pandoc and BasicTeX from Homebrew, a few lines of front matter and a single
pandoccommand. -
Check Voltage & Current on macOS for Power Adapter
A MacBook charger's voltage and current, read from Terminal with one
ioregcommand and no extra app. -
/usr/bin/sudo must be owned by uid 0 and have the setuid bit set on Ubuntu 20.04
Getting
sudoback: boot to rescue mode from the GRUB menu, then restore its mode with onepkexec chmod.
Selected silicon
- WhatsMiner Bitcoin mining ASIC
- 8-Series ARM926EJ-S mobile multimedia SoC
- Mobile audio processors
- Mobile video and camera processors
Patents
20 granted in the United States and China, 18 of them authored by me and 2 developed under my leadership, in chip architecture, storage and file systems, firmware update and communication protocols. Two of them:
- US 7,441,077 B2: Device for transmitting data and method for the same
- CN 100389420 C: Method and apparatus for accelerating file system operation by using a coprocessor (用协处理器加速文件系统操作的方法及装置)
Roles
- Chipchain Technologies
- MicroBT (WhatsMiner)
- Zeeis Technologies
- Vimicro (NASDAQ: VIMC)
- Q-Net Technologies (OTCBB: QNNT)
Member of the Xingguang team awarded the National Science and Technology Progress Award, First Prize. Certified Entrepreneurship Mentor and Lecturer, ByteDance Group / Toutiao Creator Space (2020).