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Re:TSMC eyes Germany as possible location for first Europe c... by symmetricsaurus on Monday July 26, 2021 @06:35AM (#27957828)
Take three somewhat flat stones to start out. Alternate rubbing the surfaces together in a random fashion. As you continue the high spots of the stones will be ground down and the surfaces will become flatter and flatter. In the end you can get very precise flat surfaces.

Two stones is not enough, you can then end up with two spherical surfaces. With three this isn't possible (imagine two of them are convex, when you rub them together they will grind eachother down and become less convex).

Re:TSMC eyes Germany as possible location for first Europe c... by DougBTX on Monday July 26, 2021 @07:36AM (#27958192)
Re:TSMC eyes Germany as possible location for first Europe c... by was_a_dev on Monday July 26, 2021 @09:55AM (#27959384)
That is, one plate remains stationary while the other is lapped against it, and then the opposite is performed

Is it a strict requirement that one plate remains stationary?

Re:TSMC eyes Germany as possible location for first Europe c... by totalZero on Monday July 26, 2021 @10:55AM (#27960156)
In relative terms, one of the two plates remains stationary even if both are moving.
Re:TSMC eyes Germany as possible location for first Europe c... by Akronymus on Monday July 26, 2021 @07:53AM (#27958318)
Obligatory machine thinking: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNRnrn5DE58

Altough, I disagree with the "random fashion". Alternating the pairs AB -> BC -> CA seems more logical to me.

Re:TSMC eyes Germany as possible location for first Europe c... by reportingsjr on Monday July 26, 2021 @08:13AM (#27958456)
It is necessary to grind in a random fashion (OP is talking about the method of grinding, not the order), or you will end up with imperfections. Lots of info about this if you look in to grinding mirrors for telescopes.

Also, the order being random wouldn't effect the end result.

Re:TSMC eyes Germany as possible location for first Europe c... by openandshut on Monday July 26, 2021 @09:10AM (#27958907)
If it's a machine doing the grinding, what is the source of randomness?
Re:TSMC eyes Germany as possible location for first Europe c... by dylan604 on Monday July 26, 2021 @11:24AM (#27960566)
function setPostion(float x=random(), float y=random()){}
Re:TSMC eyes Germany as possible location for first Europe c... by datameta on Monday July 26, 2021 @07:55PM (#27966998)
I imagine the PRNG they use for this is a rather thorough implementation. Unless perhaps it is even necessary to used a cryptographic chip to generate true randomness.
Re:TSMC eyes Germany as possible location for first Europe c... by dylan604 on Monday July 26, 2021 @08:30PM (#27967236)
pseudocode my man, pseudocode. ignite the imagination, and let the reader run wild.

however, now my imagination is now running, and thinking about how overkill "true" random might be for this application. something "random" like an orbital sander would probably be enough. you're just trying to get away from side-to-side, left-circle, right-circle, up/down patterns. you're doing this to 3 different surfaces, so they would grind out any slight patterns which is the point. seems like a try crypto random would be as "effecient" as my roomba appears not to be.

Re:TSMC eyes Germany as possible location for first Europe c... by datameta on Tuesday July 27, 2021 @01:43PM (#27975285)
I suppose I went a bit overboard (no pun intended). 1 KB implementation should be more than enough for their precision.

Maybe some code then, instead: https://www.dwitter.net/d/20446

Re:TSMC eyes Germany as possible location for first Europe c... by ruined on Monday July 26, 2021 @11:09AM (#27960353)
input
Re:TSMC eyes Germany as possible location for first Europe c... by platz on Monday July 26, 2021 @09:30AM (#27959098)
When grinding the concave plate why didn't that make then other flat plate convex again?
Re:TSMC eyes Germany as possible location for first Europe c... by wizzwizz4 on Monday July 26, 2021 @09:50AM (#27959321)
It did – but less so than the original was concave. By rubbing them together, you're effectively “averaging out” the convex / concavenesses.
Re:TSMC eyes Germany as possible location for first Europe c... by jlokier on Monday July 26, 2021 @02:07PM (#27962896)
As the sibling comment explains, it does make the other flat plate convex, but by a smaller amount. Their shapes sort of average out.

I'll add that this depends on the materials having similar properties, so when ground together, they are grinding each other. This means whatever residual shape you have in one of them, it won't be transferred completely to the other.

If the materials had very different hardnesses, one of them would dominate over the other when they're ground together.

Re:TSMC eyes Germany as possible location for first Europe c... by etrautmann on Monday July 26, 2021 @11:25AM (#27960593)
or a long-form textbook on the foundations of mechanical accuracy. Someone linked to this a year ago and I found it a fascinating deep dive:

https://pearl-hifi.com/06_Lit_Archive/15_Mfrs_Publications/M...