Saturday, August 1, 2026
Two In One - The Saturday Special - Pt 1. of the pair
zip ties & double loops||dachau.
Dachau was a model camp. Not a model of humane treatment, but a prototype. An operating manual written in barbed wire, stone, and procedure.
I had stood in the yard between Block 10 and Block 11 days earlier. The pavement was gray. The wall was blank. I had nothing to say to it. I carried that yard with me across the border. By the time I reached Dachau, the sky was light blue.
Its watchtowers, roll-call yards, classification systems, and guard protocols were refined there and then installed across occupied Europe. Over 44,000 sites, ghettos included. Most history books sidestep that number, and I understand why. It isn't a number. It's a map of ordinary towns where ordinary men reported for a shift, clocked in, and went home at the end of the day. It is in the lunch pails. It is in the train schedules.
Over 200,000 people were imprisoned at Dachau. At least 40,000 died there or in its subcamps: of typhus, of starvation, of being worked until they stopped, of a bullet at the range, of a death march in the final weeks when the war was already lost and the machine kept running because nobody told it to stop. Not because they couldn't. Because stopping was never part of the procedure. The true figure is unknown and always will be. Those brought to the camp for execution were never registered.
Today German police recruits are required to walk those grounds. Depending on the state, they go to Sachsenhausen, Neuengamme, or Dachau. Not as a field trip. They stand on the pavement where the SS formed ranks and they look up at the same towers.
The badge is not cheaply earned. Years of conditioning, legal education, psychology, crisis intervention, marksmanship. High failure rates, merciless standards. The state demands extraordinary rigor of these recruits, and then demands the one thing rigor cannot supply: that they understand a badge, a manual, and a chain of command confer no morality whatsoever. The men who ran Dachau passed their physicals. They qualified on the range. They were disciplined professionals executing a protocol, and they were good at it. That is the whole horror, and it has nothing to do with monsters. Monsters are easy. Monsters let us sleep.
At Dachau the Bavarian police train on the former SS grounds, the training complex the guards used, adjoining the prisoner camp. Not the victims' quarters. The perpetrators'. That distinction cuts the wrong way for comfort, which is exactly why it belongs in the curriculum.
What the camps industrialized was not cruelty. Cruelty is old and needs no engineering. What they industrialized was restraint as a procurement problem: standardized, catalogued, requisitioned by the gross, applied by men who had been trained in the application and not in the question. Barbed wire, then zip ties. The form persists. Not the hardware, but the requisition form.
Alongside the memorial visits comes antisemitism training. Curricula on symbols, on coded language, on tropes that outlive the regimes that coined them. I want to be careful here, because the intent is real and the alternative is indefensible. But a seminar is a seminar. Antisemitism gets taught as recognition: learn the symbol, learn the slogan, file the report. That is single-loop learning, refining your performance inside the protocol and never asking what the protocol is for. The double loop is the one that asks what the badge obligates you to when no report is required. It rarely gets taught, because it cannot be graded.
I can only speak to what I saw. Walking through Germany in bright clothing and red shoes, I was noticed by police who were aggressive about it, and one of them mocked me by raising his boot. That gesture has a specific vocabulary and he knew it. Whatever the seminar covers, it did not cover that. Or it covered it and he had passed the module.
I also watched police scanning for anything that might read as Nazi. That is not zeal, it is statute: German law bans the symbols outright, and officers are required to look. The scanning does what it is designed to do: catch the obvious. The obvious has never been the problem. The problem is the one who does not announce himself. The one who you trust for critical services. The one you've known for 25 years.
A Majdanek survivor goes into federal witness protection only to find that 10 years later, she's back in the same medical clinic. The system promised protection. The clinic kept the files.
Recognition is the codified duty. Which explains the shape of the training, and its limit. The symbol is in the criminal code. The synagogue door is not.
On Yom Kippur 2019, nobody was standing outside the synagogue in Halle. The state police of Saxony-Anhalt had taken no extra precautions there for the holiday. The gunman spent nine minutes on it, firing at the main door and a side gate, setting off improvised explosives, with fifty-one people on the other side. The door held. He killed a woman passing by, then drove to a kebab shop and killed a customer. The door held. Not the state. Every officer in that jurisdiction had been taught the history. The history was not the problem. The congregation had asked, and asked, and was met with a curriculum.
That is my quarrel with commemoration as pedagogy. A day at a memorial is finite, legible, completable, and the men who ran the camps are safely dead. Vigilance is none of those things. It's a Tuesday. It's an unglamorous patrol car parked where a congregation asked for one, for the eleventh year running, on a holiday when nothing happens, because nothing happening is the entire point. Nobody thanks you for the morning the threat never materialized.
And still: the nation that built this machinery makes its own police stand where it was designed and insists they look. Whatever that costs Germany in self-regard, it pays. The rest of us are asked to pay nothing, and mostly we don't. Which leaves the question I couldn't put down in that yard. Not whether I would have been the guard or the prisoner, because everyone flatters themselves on that one. Whether I'd have been the third thing. The clerk. The driver. The man who noticed the trains and decided it wasn't his department. The man who signed the requisition without reading it.
The barbed wire is gone. The blueprint isn't. The ground remembers even when the building does not.
Waning crescent
the death wall was days behind me.
© 2026 Bryan R. Hinton
sha512sum -c SHA512SUMS.CA42 47E8 9A5E FEAB 36DC 6A42 C547 9171 B69A 3CFB 887D B92C 3FB1 480A 2993 57A3.ots file proves that SHA512SUMS existed at or before the Bitcoin block timestamp below.a thousand years||on polish soil.
six hours after majdanek.
© 2026 Bryan R. Hinton
Between five and six million Polish citizens were murdered, three million of them Polish Jews. Much of the killing was carried out on that same soil: at Auschwitz-Birkenau, Treblinka, Sobibór, Bełżec, Majdanek, and Chełmno, all of them Nazi German camps and killing centers built in occupied Poland. Whole towns where no one came home. A civilization of a thousand years, destroyed in five.
The fields look ordinary now. The forests have grown back. The track is still there.
The silence in those places is not empty. It is the shape of what was taken.
This is a shared history, and it cannot be told without Poland. From the Statute of Kalisz in 1264 through the academies of Kraków and Lublin, the printing houses of Warsaw, and the streets of Wilno, Polish Jews built one of the great civilizations of Europe. They were Polish citizens. They fought in Polish uprisings. They are buried in Polish soil.
To study this history through the objects, documents, and testimonies that preserve it, I recommend:
POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews
Warsaw
Ośrodek „Brama Grodzka – Teatr NN”
Lublin
Państwowe Muzeum na Majdanku
Lublin
sha512sum -c SHA512SUMS.2969 AEB8 0A42 E021 5E66 4D93 BD9B C85E 0213 8166 415C 9171 2074 3657 B386 AF51.ots file proves that SHA512SUMS existed at or before the Bitcoin block timestamp below.UNLIT PROMISE||— Neon Noir, Pt. 2 —
© 2026 Bryan R. Hinton
sha512sum -c SHA512SUMS.CA42 47E8 9A5E FEAB 36DC 6A42 C547 9171 B69A 3CFB 887D B92C 3FB1 480A 2993 57A3.ots file proves that SHA512SUMS existed at or before the Bitcoin block timestamp below.Thursday, July 30, 2026
THE TEXAS BLADE||— Neon Noir, Pt. 1 —
© 2026 Bryan R. Hinton
sha512sum -c SHA512SUMS.CA42 47E8 9A5E FEAB 36DC 6A42 C547 9171 B69A 3CFB 887D B92C 3FB1 480A 2993 57A3.ots file proves that SHA512SUMS existed at or before the Bitcoin block timestamp below.Wednesday, July 29, 2026
The Angel on the Ceiling
© 2026 Bryan R. Hinton
I looked up and saw him, suddenly free from above me, floating in open air. He’d been hovering over a pale desert portrait that looks like it has no eyes left to cry with. I didn’t wonder where he came from; he just arrived. His horn doesn’t play tunes so much as make a quiet sound that demands attention. It feels exactly like the things we keep inside, trying not to let them out, until one day the walls simply can’t hold them anymore. He isn’t quite heavenly or ghostly, just something true, finally letting go.
sha512sum -c SHA512SUMS.CA42 47E8 9A5E FEAB 36DC 6A42 C547 9171 B69A 3CFB 887D B92C 3FB1 480A 2993 57A3.ots file proves that SHA512SUMS existed at or before the Bitcoin block timestamp below.Tuesday, July 28, 2026
Places of Memory · Konzentrationslager Auschwitz I · The Watchtower
© 2026 Bryan R. Hinton
She arrived under a tower like this one, three kilometres away at Birkenau. She left as Reg. A 105, folio 9.
Auschwitz I was surrounded by a double barbed-wire fence punctuated by guard towers at regular intervals. The towers stood on the outer perimeter; the fence was electrified at high voltage. Along the fence, on the camp side, ran a gravelled strip, the "neutral zone". Camp regulations, corroborated by survivor testimony, held that guards in the towers could shoot any prisoner who entered that strip without warning. Their function was custody: to ensure that the people inside could not leave until the state had decided how they would.
On 3 September 1944, the last transport from the Westerbork transit camp to Auschwitz departed the Netherlands. It arrived at the new ramp inside Auschwitz II–Birkenau on the night of 5–6 September, after two and a half days in locked cattle wagons. Of the 1,019 Jews on the manifest, four were Franks. They appeared in sequence: Margot at 306, Otto at 307, Edith at 308, Annelies Marie at 309. By the Anne Frank House's reconstruction from the transport list and the camp number series, 648 people from the transport were registered into the camp administration after selection; 371 were sent directly to the gas chambers. The women remained at Auschwitz II–Birkenau. The men were taken to Auschwitz I, about three kilometres away; the distance and the camp's known procedures suggest they made the journey on foot. On 30 October, Margot and Anne were selected for transfer to Bergen-Belsen; the transport departed the night of 1 November and arrived on 3 November. The dates are reconstructed from survivors' letters and interviews; no transport list naming the sisters survives. Edith was left behind at Auschwitz II–Birkenau. According to the account of Rosa de Winter‑Levy, she died there in the infirmary on 6 January 1945; neither the place nor the date is confirmed by any camp record.
The Westerbork camp kept its own register. Her entry is on page 40. The pink card below is an extract citing it, preserved in her death file; the oldest documents in that file date from April 1951, so the card was most likely made in the course of postwar processing rather than at the camp. Transport: 3-9-44. Naam: FRANK. Voornamen: Annelies, M. Geboren: 12-6-29. Adres: Merwedeplein 37, Asd. It is among the last documents in the state's custody of her to record the street where she lived.
Nationaal Archief, Den Haag · 2.09.34.02, inv.nr. 539 · public domain
Bergen-Belsen maintained a prisoner registration system, so Margot and Anne would have been registered upon arrival and assigned new numbers, as was standard practice. But shortly before British forces liberated the camp on 15 April 1945, the SS burned the prisoner registration records. The numbers Anne and Margot were assigned at Bergen-Belsen are not known; neither are their Auschwitz numbers. The women of their transport were tattooed in a numbered series, but no surviving record ties either sister to a number within it. After the Westerbork transport list of 3 September 1944, no surviving document names them at all. According to eyewitness accounts and the postwar historical consensus, they died at Bergen-Belsen of typhus, probably in February 1945. The dating rests on those witness statements, on the 7 February 1945 transport list to Raguhn (which fixes the departure of witnesses who had seen them ill), on the receipt of a Red Cross parcel in late January 1945, and on the ordinary course of the disease.
For six years, the paperwork caught up slowly. The two oldest documents in her death file are forms dated 6 April 1951, in which the Commissie tot het doen van aangifte van overlijden van vermisten, the Committee for the Reporting of the Decease of Missing Persons (created under the law of 2 June 1949), wrote to the Dutch Red Cross and to the Amsterdam civil registrar to ask what was known. The Red Cross filed the Committee's request against its own record: "dossier N.R.K. 117266. Cf. concl. RK † 31 Maart 1945 te Bergen Belsen / Dld." Conclusion: died no later than 31 March 1945 at Bergen-Belsen. The Amsterdam civil registrar confirmed that no death certificate had been issued. Six years after Anne Frank's death, the municipal record said only that she had vanished and had never been declared dead.
On 7 May 1954, Johannes Kleiman, Otto Frank's colleague and one of the helpers who had hidden the Franks, wrote to the Committee as Otto's authorized representative, asking that the declarations for Margot and Anne be processed; Otto needed them to have a certificate of inheritance drawn up. The Committee acknowledged receipt on 4 June. The declaration itself was issued on 29 July 1954, in The Hague. It is the document reproduced below.
Commissie tot het doen van aangifte van overlijden van vermisten · Nationaal Archief 2.09.34.02, inv.nr. 539
The declaration is a typed form on light paper, numbered No. 107,658. Stamped at the top: AFSCHRIFT — copy. The printed Dutch is dense with legal procedure: Krachtens art. 2 van de Wet van 2 Juni 1949 (Stbl. No. J 227) doe ik U hierbij aangifte van het overlijden van de hieronder vermelde vermiste. By virtue of article 2 of the Law of 2 June 1949, I hereby declare the death of the missing person named below. The filled-in carbon strikes are faint: Op een en dertig Maart negentienhonderd vijf en veertig is in Bergen-Belsen in Duitsland overleden: Frank, Annelies Marie. The date is written in longhand Dutch, een en dertig Maart, the certainty the facts didn't support, spelled out word by word.
The form was sent to the Amsterdam civil registrar. Three months later, on 29 October 1954, the registrar entered the death in the municipal register in faint purple hand at the lower right: Reg. A/105. Fol. 9. Initialled and filed.
Cites overlijdensakte · Burgerlijke Stand Amsterdam · Reg. A 105, Fol. 9 · d.d. 29-10-1954
The archiefkaart is Amsterdam's internal reference card for that registry entry. Printed fields in Dutch: Naam, Voornamen, Geboren op, Overleden op, Overlijdensakte opgemaakt, Bijzonderheden. The handwriting fills them in. Born 12 June 1929. Died 31 March 1945. Filed at Amsterdam on 29-10-54. Bijzonderheden (particulars): blank.
The working card that produced the date survives in the Dutch Red Cross Information Bureau's persoonsdossier on Anne Frank. It is pencil and ink, stamped 22 January 1952, a year after the statement of Lien (Lientje) Rebling-Brilleslijper, who had been imprisoned with Anne and Margot at Bergen-Belsen. In the clerk's hand at the bottom, boxed off from the rest, is the conclusion: Overleden te Bergen-Belsen niet eerder dan op 1.3.45 en uiterlijk 31.3.45. No earlier than 1 March, no later than 31 March.
Nederlandse Rode Kruis, Informatiebureau · Nationaal Archief 2.19.288, inv.nr. 101677 · vervroegd openbaar gemaakt oktober 2023
The date 31 March 1945 is a bureaucratic default. It was the Committee's standard practice to date unknown deaths at the last day of the assumed month when a witness statement could establish the month. The witness statement was Brilleslijper's, given to the Dutch Red Cross on 22 January 1951. She said Anne and Margot died "around March 1945." She had put it differently elsewhere: to Otto Frank in November 1945 (the end of February or the beginning of March), and in a memoir written at his request in April 1951, where the end comes in February. The Committee picked March 31. No one then knew, and no one now knows, when Anne Frank actually died.
Her name also appears on a typed list. Lijst No. 1908. Every entry on the page is a Frank. She is fifth down: Annelies Marie, Frankfurt am Main, 12-6-1929, Bergen-Belsen, 31-3-1945. Six rows below her: Aron Moses Edward, Rotterdam, 7-8-1910, Polen, 31-3-1944. Place of death: Poland. The last day of March. Almost certainly the same administrative default, one year earlier. Near the top: Andries, Tiel, 4-3-1914, Omgeving van Auschwitz, 30-4-1943 (surroundings of Auschwitz, the last day of April). The list is one of many. This sheet was typed on 29 April 1959. It covers the letter A through the start of B.
Typed list of Dutch concentration-camp victims · d.d. 29-4-1959
Sources
Transport list: numbers 306, 307, 308, 309 (Margot, Otto, Edith, Anne Frank). Nederlandse Rode Kruis, Den Haag (war archive now held by the Nationaal Archief): Transportlijst Westerbork–Auschwitz, 3 september 1944 (inv. nr. 1066, Blatt 7). Otto Frank is listed at number 307 as "Frank Otto 12.5.89 Kaufman." Cited via the scholarly apparatus of the Anne Frank House Knowledge Base: Deportation to Auschwitz-Birkenau. This was the last transport from Westerbork to Auschwitz; larger transports left afterwards for other destinations, including transport XXIV/7 to Theresienstadt on 4 September 1944 with over 2,000 people.
Auschwitz-Birkenau: selection at the ramp, separation of men and women; arrival confirmed on the night of Tuesday 5 to Wednesday 6 September 1944. By the Anne Frank House's reconstruction from the transport list and camp number series, 648 of the 1,019 persons (399 men, 249 women) entered the camp administration and 371 were killed on arrival. Danuta Czech's Kalendarium der Ereignisse im Konzentrationslager Auschwitz-Birkenau gives the older standard figures for this transport: 470 registered (258 men, 212 women) and 549 killed. Anne Frank House Knowledge Base: Selections upon arrival at Auschwitz-Birkenau; Auschwitz I: the men in the Stammlager.
The new internal Birkenau ramp (Neue Rampe), operational from May 1944. Muzeum Auschwitz-Birkenau (Oświęcim): The unloading ramps and selections.
Auschwitz I: double barbed-wire fence, watchtowers, high-voltage electrification, and the "neutral zone" where prisoners could be shot. Wacław Długoborski, Franciszek Piper (eds.), Auschwitz 1940–1945. Central issues in the history of the camp, Oświęcim: Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, 2000, vol. I, and survivor testimonies. Photographs of the preserved fence system: Muzeum Auschwitz-Birkenau: Watchtowers and fence system (Former Auschwitz I site).
Otto Frank's transfer to Auschwitz I. The Anne Frank House states that the men were taken to Auschwitz I, about three kilometres away; the camp's layout and standard practice suggest they made the journey on foot. No document explicitly records the mode of travel for this group. Anne Frank House Knowledge Base: Auschwitz I: the men in the Stammlager.
Transfer of Margot and Anne to Bergen-Belsen (selected 30 October 1944; transport departed 1 November; arrived 3 November). Dates reconstructed from survivor correspondence and interviews (letters of Margot Rosenthal and Nanette Blitz to Otto Frank; Willy Lindwer, De laatste zeven maanden, 1988; synthesis in Bas von Benda-Beckmann, Na het Achterhuis, 2020); no transport list naming Anne or Margot survives. Anne Frank House Knowledge Base: Journey to Bergen-Belsen; Arrival at Bergen-Belsen.
Registration at Bergen-Belsen. Bergen-Belsen maintained a prisoner registration system; arriving prisoners were routinely registered and assigned numbers. The SS burned these records before liberation, so the specific registration of Anne and Margot is an inference from standard camp procedure, not a documented fact. Gedenkstätte Bergen-Belsen (Lower Saxony): Register of Names; The Dead of the Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp.
Death of Anne and Margot Frank at Bergen-Belsen. No camp record documents their deaths. The place and approximate date rest on eyewitness accounts (Brilleslijper, Blitz, Van Amerongen, and others) and subsequent historical analysis. The 31 March 1945 administrative default and the February 1945 revision are discussed in Anne Frank House: Sources for the date of death of Anne and Margot Frank in Bergen-Belsen (2015): eyewitness statements, the Bergen-Belsen–Raguhn transport list of 7 February 1945 (ITS, Bad Arolsen), a Red Cross parcel receipt of c. 23 January 1945, and the clinical course of typhus. Anne Frank House Knowledge Base: Death of Anne and Margot Frank. Official date based on Lientje Brilleslijper's 22 January 1951 statement to the Nederlandse Rode Kruis (file 117266, cartotheekkaartje of the Afwikkelingsbureau Concentratiekampen); the same Anne Frank House document records her earlier statements of 11 November 1945 and 5 April 1951, and notes that Otto Frank needed the declarations for a certificate of inheritance. Official date set by the Commissie tot het doen van aangifte van overlijden van vermisten, Dutch Ministry of Justice. Underlying archival research: Raymund Schütz, Vermoedelijk op transport (Master's thesis, Archival Science, Universiteit Leiden Instituut Geschiedenis, 2010).
Edith Frank-Holländer: death at Auschwitz II–Birkenau, 6 January 1945. The place and date rest solely on the account of Rosa de Winter-Levy; no camp record confirms them. See also the Anne Frank House Knowledge Base.
Westerbork transit camp: site memorial and documentation. Herinneringscentrum Kamp Westerbork (Hooghalen): kampwesterbork.nl.
Westerbork records as archived in the International Tracing Service. Arolsen Archives (Bad Arolsen, UNESCO Memory of the World): Westerbork Assembly and Transit Camp records (DE ITS 1.1.46).
Anne Frank's Jewish Council index card (Amsterdam). Arolsen Archives: Index card from the Jewish Council card file in Amsterdam — Annelies Maria Frank.
Westerborkregister: extract card for Annelies Marie Frank, transport of 3 September 1944. Pink preprinted card citing the Westerbork register (Blz. 40) and recording surname (Frank), given names (Annelies, M.), date of birth (12-6-29), home address (Merwedeplein 37, Amsterdam), and transport date (3-9-44). Preserved in Anne Frank's overlijdensdossier at the Committee; the card's own production date is not established. The oldest documents in the dossier are the Committee's forms of 6 April 1951, so the card was most likely made in the course of postwar processing rather than at the camp. Nationaal Archief, Den Haag: Ministerie van Justitie / Commissie tot het doen van aangifte van overlijden van vermisten, toegangsnummer 2.09.34.02, inv.nr. 539. Publicly accessible; no copyright restrictions ("Volledig openbaar. Er zijn geen beperkingen krachtens het auteursrecht").
Aangifte van overlijden van vermiste (declaration of death of a missing person): Annelies Marie Frank, No. 107,658. Issued in 's-Gravenhage (The Hague) on 29 July 1954 by the Commissie tot het doen van aangifte van overlijden van vermisten (Ministry of Justice), a body established under the Wet van 2 Juni 1949 (Stbl. No. J 227) to produce paper closure for Dutch residents missing from the war. Entered by the Amsterdam civil registrar on 29 October 1954 in the Register van Overlijden, Register A 105, Folio 9. Nationaal Archief, Den Haag: toegangsnummer 2.09.34.02, inv.nr. 539. Publicly accessible; no copyright restrictions. The same document is catalogued at Yad Vashem, Record Group O.41, item 5222601. The full chronology of the Committee's handling of Anne Frank's case (6 April 1951 inquiries to the Dutch Red Cross and Amsterdam civil registrar; Kleiman's 7 May 1954 letter on behalf of Otto Frank; the Committee's 4 June 1954 acknowledgment; the 29 July 1954 declaration; the 29 October 1954 Amsterdam registration) is set out in the Nationaal Archief's public exhibition page, Het overlijden van Anne Frank wordt vastgesteld.
Cartotheekkaartje: NRK Information Bureau conclusion card, stamped 22 January 1952. Handwritten index card summarising Brilleslijper's statement and establishing the administrative bracket for the date of death: Overleden te Bergen-Belsen niet eerder dan op 1.3.45 en uiterlijk 31.3.45. References NRK Information Bureau Report 6/XIV No. 102, Opsporing Joodse Personen (Search for Jewish Persons). Preserved in Anne Frank's persoonsdossier at the Dutch Red Cross Information Bureau. Nationaal Archief, Den Haag: Het Nederlandse Rode Kruis — Informatiebureau: Persoonsdossiers, toegangsnummer 2.19.288, inv.nr. 101677 (persoonsdossier Anne Frank, vervroegd openbaar gemaakt / released ahead of schedule, October 2023).
Archiefkaart: Frank, Annelies Marie. Amsterdam civil registry reference card citing the overlijdensakte at Register A 105, Folio 9, d.d. 29-10-1954. The Stadsarchief Amsterdam holds archief- and persoonskaarten under toegangsnummer 30238, and cards of deceased persons are publicly accessible online at archief.amsterdam. The archival provenance of the specific scan reproduced above is not established here.
Typed concentration-camp victim list reproduced above. Header: CONCENTRATIEKAMP — Lijst No. 1908. Column headers: Naam / Voornaam / Plaats en datum van geboorte / Plaats en datum van overlijden. Page 14 of a larger series; typed footer dated 29 April 1959, with bilingual Dutch-French labels par typ and par contr. The format is consistent with Nederlandse Rode Kruis compilations from the postwar Afwikkelingsbureau Concentratiekampen, but the archival provenance of the scan itself is not established here.
sha512sum -c SHA512SUMS.2969 AEB8 0A42 E021 5E66 4D93 BD9B C85E 0213 8166 415C 9171 2074 3657 B386 AF51.ots file proves that SHA512SUMS existed at or before the Bitcoin block timestamp below.Wednesday, February 24, 2021
A hardware design for variable output frequency using an n-bit counter
As the switches are moved or the buttons are pressed, the seven-segment display is updated to reflect the numeric output frequency, and the output pin(s) are driven at the desired frequency. The onboard clock runs at 50MHz, and the signal on the output pins is set on the rising edge of the clock input signal (positive edge-triggered). At 50MHz, the output pins can be toggled at a maximum rate of 50 million cycles per second or 25 million rising edges of the clock per second. An LED attached to one of the output pins would blink 25 million times per second, not recognizable to the human eye. The persistence of vision, which is the time the human eye retains an image after it disappears from view, is approximately 1/16th of a second. Therefore, an LED blinking at 25 million times per second would appear as a continuous light to the human eye.
scaler <= compute_prescaler((to_integer(unsigned( SW )))*scaler_mlt);
gpiopulse_process : process(CLOCK_50, KEY(0))
begin
if (KEY(0) = '0') then -- async reset
count <= 0;
elsif rising_edge(CLOCK_50) then
if (count = scaler - 1) then
state <= not state;
count <= 0;
elsif (count = clk50divider) then -- auto reset
count <= 0;
else
count <= count + 1;
end if;
end if;
end process gpiopulse_process;It is important to note that concurrent statements within an architecture are executed concurrently, meaning that they are evaluated concurrently and in no particular order. However, the sequential statements within a process are executed sequentially, meaning that they are evaluated in order, one at a time. Processes themselves are executed concurrently with other processes, and each process has its own execution context.
Tuesday, August 25, 2020
Creating stronger keys for OpenSSH and GPG
Create Ed25519 SSH keypair (supported in OpenSSH 6.5+). Parameters are as follows:
-o save in new format-a 128 for 128 kdf (key derivation function) rounds
-t ed25519 for type of key
ssh-keygen -o -a 128 -t ed25519 -f .ssh/ed25519-$(date '+%m-%d-%Y') -C ed25519-$(date '+%m-%d-%Y')
# gpg --quick-generate-key ed448-master-key-$(date '+%m-%d-%Y') ed448 sign 0
# gpg --list-keys --with-colons "ed448-master-key-08-03-2021" | grep fpr
# gpg --quick-add-key "$fpr" cv448 encr 2y
# gpg --quick-add-key "$fpr" ed448 auth 2y
# gpg --quick-add-key "$fpr" ed448 sign 2ySunday, September 2, 2018
96Boards - JTAG and serial UART configuration for ARM powered, single-board computers
The 96boards CE specification calls for an optional JTAG connection. The specification also indicates that the optional JTAG connection shall use a 10 pin through hole, .05" (1.27mm) pitch JTAG connector. The part is readily available on most electronics sites. Breaking out the pins with long wires and shrink wrapping them is ideal for making sure that each connection is labeled and separate when connecting to a JTAG debugger. While a JTAG connection is not required for flashing or loading the bootloaders onto the board, the JTAG connection is useful for advanced chip-level debugging. The serial UART connection is sufficient for loading release or debug versions of bl0, bl1, bl2, bl31, bl32, the kernel, and userspace. Last but not least, ARM-powered boards, with 12V power input, often require external fans to keep the board cool. As seen in the below photos, two 5V fans were powered from an external power supply. Any work on microcontroller boards should be performed on a grounded surface. Proper grounding procedures should always be followed as most microcontroller boards contain ESD sensitive components.
In the below photos, a 96Boards SBC is mounted on an IP65, ABS plastic junction box for durability. The pins are extended and mounted with screws underneath the junction box. The electrical conduit holes on the side of the junction box are ideal for holding small, project fans. The remaining electrical conduit holes provide a clean place to place the remaining wires from the board - micro USB, USB-C, and 12V power.
Thursday, June 7, 2018
HiKey 960 Linux Bridged Firewall
The Kirin 960 SoC and on-board USB 3.0 make the HiKey 960 SBC an ideal platform for running a Linux Bridged firewall. The number of single-board computers with an SoC as powerful as the HiSilicon Kirin 960 are limited.
When compared with the Raspberry Pi series of single board computers (SBC), the HiKey 960 SBC is significantly more powerful. The Kirin 960 also stands above the ARM powered SoCs which reside in most commercial routers.
USB 3.0 makes the HiKey 960 board an attractive option for bridging or routing, filtering network traffic, or connecting to an external gateway via IPSec. Both network traffic filtering and IPSec tunneling can be computationally expensive operations. However; the multicore Kirin 960 is well suited for these types of tasks.
In order to be able to run an IPSec client tunnel and a Linux Bridged firewall connected over 1G ethernet links, certain kernel configuration modifications are needed. Furthermore, the Android Linux kernel for the HiKey 960 board does not boot on a standard Linux root filesystem because it is designed to boot an Android customized rootfs.
The latest googlesource Linux kernel (hikey-linaro-4.9) for Android (designed to boot Android on the HiKey 960 board) has been customized to remove the Android specific components so that the kernel boots on a standard Linux root filesystem, with the proper drivers enabled for network connectivity via attached 1000Mb/s USB 3.0 to ethernet adapters. The standard UART interface on the board should be used for serial connectivity and shell access. WiFi and Bluetooth have been removed from the kernel configuration. The kernel should be booted off of a microSDHC UHS-I card. The 96boards instructions should be followed for configuring the HiKey 960 board, setting the jumpers on the board, building and flashing the l-loader, firmware package, partition tables, UEFI loader, ARM Trusted Firmware, and optional Op-TEE. Links for the normal Linux kernel configuration, multi-interface bridge configuration, and single interface IPSec configuration are below. Additional kernel config modifications may be needed for certain types of applications.
kernel build instructions
mkdir /usr/local/toolchains cd /usr/local/toolchains/ wget https://releases.linaro.org/components/toolchain/binaries/latest/aarch64-linux-gnu/gcc-linaro-7.2.1-2017.11-x86_64_aarch64-linux-gnu.tar.xz tar -xJf gcc-linaro-7.2.1-2017.11-x86_64_aarch64-linux-gnu.tar.xz export ARCH=arm64 export CROSS_COMPILE=/usr/local/toolchains/gcc-linaro-7.2.1-2017.11-x86_64_aarch64-linux-gnu/bin/aarch64-linux-gnu- export PATH=/usr/local/toolchains/gcc-linaro-7.2.1-2017.11-x86_64_aarch64-linux-gnu/gcc-aarch64-linux-gnu/bin:$PATH cd /usr/local/src git clone https://android.googlesource.com/kernel/hikey-linaro
cd hikey-linaro git checkout -b android-hikey-linaro-4.9
make hikey960_defconfig make -j8
multi-interface bridge configuration
Bridged configuration, no ip addresses on dual nic interfaces. (crossover cable is useful for testing). Bridge interface obtains dhcp address(/11) from wlan router. aliased interface added to br0 and assigned private subnet ip on different subnet (/8). Spanning tree set on bridge interface. Basic ebtables and iptables ruleset below.
brctl addbr <br> brctl addif <br> <eth1> <eth2> ifconfig <br> up ifconfig <eth1> up ifconfig <eth2> up brctl stp <br> yes dhclient <br> ifconfig <br>:0 <a.b.c.d/sn> up iptables --table nat --append POSTROUTING --out-interface <br> -j MASQUERADE iptables -P INPUT DROP iptables --append FORWARD --in-interface <br>:0 -j ACCEPT ebtables -P FORWARD DROP ebtables -P INPUT DROP ebtables -P OUTPUT DROP ebtables -t filter -A FORWARD -p IPv4 -j ACCEPT ebtables -t filter -A INPUT -p IPv4 -j ACCEPT ebtables -t filter -A OUTPUT -p IPv4 -j ACCEPT ebtables -t filter -A INPUT -p ARP -j ACCEPT ebtables -t filter -A OUTPUT -p ARP -j ACCEPT ebtables -t filter -A FORWARD -p ARP -j REJECT ebtables -t filter -A FORWARD -p IPv6 -j DROP ebtables -t filter -A FORWARD -d Multicast -j DROP ebtables -t filter -A FORWARD -p X25 -j DROP ebtables -t filter -A FORWARD -p FR_ARP -j DROP ebtables -t filter -A FORWARD -p BPQ -j DROP ebtables -t filter -A FORWARD -p DEC -j DROP ebtables -t filter -A FORWARD -p DNA_DL -j DROP ebtables -t filter -A FORWARD -p DNA_RC -j DROP ebtables -t filter -A FORWARD -p LAT -j DROP ebtables -t filter -A FORWARD -p DIAG -j DROP ebtables -t filter -A FORWARD -p CUST -j DROP ebtables -t filter -A FORWARD -p SCA -j DROP ebtables -t filter -A FORWARD -p TEB -j DROP ebtables -t filter -A FORWARD -p RAW_FR -j DROP ebtables -t filter -A FORWARD -p AARP -j DROP ebtables -t filter -A FORWARD -p ATALK -j DROP ebtables -t filter -A FORWARD -p 802_1Q -j DROP ebtables -t filter -A FORWARD -p IPX -j DROP ebtables -t filter -A FORWARD -p NetBEUI -j DROP ebtables -t filter -A FORWARD -p PPP -j DROP ebtables -t filter -A FORWARD -p ATMMPOA -j DROP ebtables -t filter -A FORWARD -p PPP_DISC -j DROP ebtables -t filter -A FORWARD -p PPP_SES -j DROP ebtables -t filter -A FORWARD -p ATMFATE -j DROP ebtables -t filter -A FORWARD -p LOOP -j DROP ebtables -t filter -A FORWARD --log-level info --log-ip --log-prefix FFWLOG ebtables -t filter -A OUTPUT --log-level info --log-ip --log-arp --log-prefix OFWLOG -j DROP ebtables -t filter -A INPUT --log-level info --log-ip --log-prefix IFWLOG
single-interface ipsec gateway configuration
iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -s <clientip>/32 -o <eth> -j SNAT --to-source <virtualip> iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -s <clientip>/32 -o <eth> -m policy --dir out --pol ipsec -j ACCEPT
Thursday, February 1, 2018
a Hardware Design for XOR gates using sequential logic in VHDL
ModelSim Full Window view with wave form output of xor simulation. ModelSim-Intel FPGA Starter Edition © Intel
XOR logic gates are a fundamental component in cryptography, and many of the typical stream and block ciphers use XOR gates. A few of these ciphers are ChaCha (stream cipher), AES (block cipher), and RSA (block cipher).
While many compiled and interpreted languages support bitwise operations such as XOR, the software implementation of both block and stream ciphers is computationally inefficient compared to FPGA and ASIC implementations.
Hybrid FPGA boards integrate FPGAs with multicore ARM and Intel application processors over high-speed buses. The ARM and Intel processors are general-purpose processors. On a hybrid board, the ARM or Intel processor is termed the hard processor system or HPS. Writing to the FPGA from the HPS is typically performed via C from an embedded Linux build (yocto or buildroot) running on the ARM or Intel core. A simple bitstream can also be loaded into the FPGA fabric without using any ARM design blocks or functionality in the ARM core for a hybrid ARM configuration.
The following is a simple hardware design written in VHDL and simulated in ModelSim. The image contains the waveform output of a simulation in ModelSim. The HPS is not used. On boot, the bitstream is loaded into the FPGA fabric. VHDL components are utilized, and a testbench is defined for testing the design. The entity and architecture VHDL design units are below.
- --three input xnor gate entity declaration - external interface to design entity
entity xnorgate is
port (
a,b,c : in std_logic;
q : out std_logic);
end xnorgate;
architecture xng of xnorgate is
begin
q <= a xnor b xnor c;
end xng;
- --chain of xor / xnor gates using components and sequential logic
entity xorchain is
port (
A,B,C,D,E,F : in std_logic;
Av,Bv : in std_logic_vector(31 downto 0);
CLOCK_50 : in std_logic;
Q : out std_logic;
Qv : out std_logic_vector(31 downto 0));
end xorchain;
architecture rtl of xorchain is
component xorgate is
port (
a,b : in std_logic;
q : out std_logic);
end component;
component xnorgate is
port (
a,b,c : in std_logic;
q : out std_logic);
end component;
component xorsgate is
port (
av : in std_logic_vector(31 downto 0);
bv : in std_logic_vector(31 downto 0);
qv : out std_logic_vector(31 downto 0));
end component;
signal a_in, b_in, c_in, d_in, e_in, f_in : std_logic;
signal av_in, bv_in : std_logic_vector(31 downto 0);
signal conn1, conn2, conn3 : std_logic;
begin
xorgt1 : xorgate port map(a => a_in, b => b_in, q => conn1);
xorgt2 : xorgate port map(a => c_in, b => d_in, q => conn2);
xorgt3 : xorgate port map(a => e_in, b => f_in, q => conn3);
xnorgt1 : xnorgate port map(conn1, conn2, conn3, Q);
xorsgt1 : xorsgate port map(av => av_in, bv => bv_in, qv => Qv);
process(CLOCK_50)
begin
if rising_edge(CLOCK_50) then --assign inputs on rising clock edge
a_in <= A;
b_in <= B;
c_in <= C;
d_in <= D;
e_in <= E;
f_in <= F;
av_in(31 downto 0) <= Av(31 downto 0);
bv_in(31 downto 0) <= Bv(31 downto 0);
end if; end process;
end rtl;
entity xorchain_tb is
end xorchain_tb;
architecture xorchain_tb_arch of xorchain_tb is
signal A_in,B_in,C_in,D_in,E_in,F_in : std_logic := '0';
signal Av_in : std_logic_vector(31 downto 0);
signal Bv_in : std_logic_vector(31 downto 0);
signal CLOCK_50_in : std_logic;
signal BRK : boolean := FALSE;
signal Q_out : std_logic;
signal Qv_out : std_logic_vector(31 downto 0);
component xorchain
port (
A,B,C,D,E,F : in std_logic;
Av : in std_logic_vector(31 downto 0);
Bv : in std_logic_vector(31 downto 0);
CLOCK_50 : in std_logic;
Q : out std_logic;
Qv : out std_logic_vector(31 downto 0));
end component;
begin
xorchain_instance: xorchain port map (A => A_in,B => B_in, C => C_in,
D => D_in, E => E_in, F => F_in, Av => Av_in,
Bv => Bv_in, CLOCK_50 => CLOCK_50_in, Q => Q_out,
Qv => Qv_out);
clockprocess: process
begin
while not BRK loop
CLOCK_50_in <= '0';
wait for 20 ns;
CLOCK_50_in <= '1';
wait for 20 ns;
end loop;
wait;
end process clockprocess;
testprocess : process
begin
A_in <= '1';
B_in <= '0';
C_in <= '1';
D_in <= '0';
E_in <= '1';
F_in <= '1';
wait for 40 ns;
A_in <= '1';
B_in <= '0';
C_in <= '1';
D_in <= '0';
E_in <= '1';
F_in <= '0';
wait for 20 ns;
A_in <= '0';
B_in <= '0';
C_in <= '1';
D_in <= '0';
E_in <= '1';
F_in <= '0';
wait for 40 ns;
BRK <= TRUE;
wait;
end process testprocess;
end xorchain_tb_arch;
entity xorgate is
port (
a,b : in std_logic;
q : out std_logic);
end xorgate;
architecture xg of xorgate is
begin
q <= a xor b;
end xg;
entity xorsgate is
port (
av : in std_logic_vector(31 downto 0);
bv : in std_logic_vector(31 downto 0);
qv : out std_logic_vector(31 downto 0));
end xorsgate;
architecture xsg of xorsgate is
begin
qv <= av xor bv;
end xsg;
Saturday, September 17, 2016
Implementing Software-defined radio and Infrared Time-lapse Imaging with Tensorflow on a custom Linux distribution for the Raspberry Pi 3
 |
| GNURadio Companion Qt Gui Frequency Sync - multiple FIR filter taps sample running on Raspberry Pi 3 custom Linux distribution |
The Raspberry Pi 3 is powered by the ARM Cortex-A53 processor. This 1.2GHz 64-bit quad-core processor fully supports the ARMv8-A architecture. For this project, a custom Linux distribution was created for the Raspberry Pi 3.
The custom Linux distribution includes support for GNURadio, several FPGA and ARM Powered SDR devices, D-STAR (hotspot, repeater, and dongle support), hsuart, libusb, hardware real-time clock support, Sony 14 megapixel NoIR image sensor, HDMI and 3.5mm audio, USB Microphone input, X-windows with Xfce, Lighttpd and PHP, Bluetooth, WiFi, SSH, TCPDump, Docker, Docker registry, MySQL, Perl, Python, QT, GTK, IPTables, x11vnc, SELinux, and full native-toolchain development support.
 |
| D-STAR hotspot with time-lapsed infrared imaging. |
Tensorflow ran in the background (on v4l2 kmod) and provided continuous object recognition and scoring within each image via a sample model. Finally, OpenCV was also installed in the root file system.
The time-lapse infrared video was captured of the living room using the above setup. Below this image are images of Tensorflow running in a terminal in the background on the Raspberry Pi 3 and recognizing/scoring objects in the living room.
 |
| Tensorflow running on the Raspberry Pi 3 and continuously capturing frames from the image sensor and scoring objects |
 |
| GNURadio Companion running on xfce on the Raspberry Pi 3 |
Tuesday, August 16, 2016
Profiling Multiprocess C programs with ARM DS-5 Streamline
void *insertpackets(void *arg) {
struct pktbuf *pkbuf;
struct packet *pkt;
int idx;
if(arg != NULL) {
pkbuf = (struct pktbuf *)arg;
/* seed random number generator */
...
/* insert 1000 packets into the packet buffer */
for(idx = 0; idx < 1000; ++idx) {
pkt = (struct packet *)malloc(sizeof(struct packet));
if(pkt != NULL) {
/* set the packet processing simulation multiplier to 3 */
pkt->mlt=...()%3;
/* insert packet in the packet buffer */
if(pkt_queue(pkbuf,pkt) != 0) {
...
...
...
...
...
...
int fcnb(time_t secs, long nsecs) {
struct timespec rqtp;
struct timespec rmtp;
int ret;
int idx;
rqtp.tv_sec = secs;
rqtp.tv_nsec = nsecs;
for(idx = 0; idx < 1000; idx++) {
ret = nanosleep(&rqtp, &rmtp);
...
...
...  |
| ARM DS-5 Streamline - Profiling the process creation application |
 |
| ARM DS-5 Streamline - Code View with C code in the top window and ARM assembly instructions in the bottom window |
Thursday, June 30, 2016
VHDL Processes for Pulsing Multiple GPIO Pins at Different Frequencies on Altera FPGA
 |
| DE1-SoC GPIO Pins connected to 780nm Infrared Laser Diodes, 660nm Red Laser Diodes, and Oscilloscope |
The following VHDL processes pulse the GPIO pins at different frequencies on the Altera DE1-SoC using multiple Phase-Locked Loops. Several diodes were connected to the GPIO banks and pulsed at a 50% duty cycle with 16mA across 3.3V. Each GPIO bank on the DE1-SoC has 36 pins. Pin 1 is pulsed at 20Hz from GPIO bank 0, and pins 0 and 1 are pulsed at 30Hz from GPIO bank 1. A direct mode PLL with locked output was configured using the Altera Quartus Prime MegaWizard. The PLL reference clock frequency is set to 50MHz, the output clock frequency is set to 50MHz, and the duty cycle is set to 50%. The pin mappings for GPIO banks 0 and 1 are documented on the DE1-SoC datasheet.
 |
| Pulsed Laser Diodes via GPIO pins on DE1-SoC FPGA |
- -- ---------------------
- -- CLOCK A AND B PROCESSES --
- -- INPUT: direct mode pll with locked output
- -- and reference clock frequency set to 50MHz,
- -- output clock frequency set to 50MHz with 50% duty
- -- cycle and output frequency scaled by freq divider constant
- -- ----------------------------------------------------------- clk_a_process : process (lkd_pll_clk_a)
begin
if rising_edge(lkd_pll_clk_a) then
if (cycle_ctr_a < FREQ_A_DIVIDER) then
cycle_ctr_a <= cycle_ctr_a + 1;
else
cycle_ctr_a <= 0;
end if;
end if;
end process clk_a_process;
clk_b_process : process (lkd_pll_clk_b)
begin
if rising_edge(lkd_pll_clk_b) then
if (cycle_ctr_b < FREQ_B_DIVIDER) then
cycle_ctr_b <= cycle_ctr_b + 1;
else
cycle_ctr_b <= 0;
end if;
end if;
end process clk_b_process; - -- ---------------------
- -- GPIO A AND B PROCESSES --
- -- INPUT: direct mode pll with locked output
- -- -------------------------------------------------------
gpio_a_process : process (lkd_pll_clk_a)
begin
if rising_edge(lkd_pll_clk_a) then
if (cycle_ctr_a = 0) then
gpio_sig_0 <= NOT gpio_sig_0;
end if;
end if;
end process gpio_a_process;
gpio_b_process : process (lkd_pll_clk_b)
begin
if rising_edge(lkd_pll_clk_b) then
if (cycle_ctr_b = 0) then
gpio_sig_1 <= NOT gpio_sig_1;
end if;
end if;
end process gpio_b_process;
GPIO_0 <= gpio_sig_0;
GPIO_1 <= gpio_sig_1;
Friday, June 3, 2016
FPGA Audio Processing with the Cyclone V Dual-Core ARM Cortex-A9
The DE1-SoC FPGA Development board from Terasic is powered by an integrated Altera Cyclone V FPGA and ARM MPCore Cortex-A9 processor. The FPGA and ARM core are connected by a high-speed interconnect fabric. Linux can be booted on the ARM core and the FPGA and ARM core can communicate.
The DE1-SoC board below has been programmed via Quartus Prime running on Fedora 23, 64-bit Linux. The FPGA bitstream was compiled from the Terasic Audio codec design reference. After the bitstream was loaded on to the FPGA over the USB blaster II interface, the NIOS II command shell was used to load the NIOS II software image onto the chip. A menu-driven, debug interface is running from a terminal on the host via the NIOS II shell with the target connected over the USB Blaster II interface.
A low-level hardware abstraction layer was programmed in C to configure the on-board audio codec chip. The NIOS II chip is stored in on-chip memory and a PLL driven, clock signal is fed into the audio chip. The Verilog code for the hardware design was generated from Qsys. The design supports configurable sample rates, mic in, and line in/out.
Additional components are connected to the DE1-SoC board in this photo. The Linear DC934A (LTC2607) DAC is connected to the DE1-SoC and an oscilloscope is connected to the ground and vref pins on the DAC.
The DC934A features an LTC2607 16-Bit Dual DAC with i2c interface and an LTC2422 2-Channel 20-Bit uPower No Latency Delta Sigma ADC.
3.5mm audio cables are connected to the mic in and line out ports, respectively. The DE1-SoC is connected to an external display over VGA so that a local console can be managed via a connected keyboard and mouse when Linux is booted from uSD.
With GPIO pins accessible via the GPIO 0 and 1 breakouts, external LEDs can be pulsed directly from the Hard Processor System (HPS), FPGA, or the FPGA via the HPS.