Undergrads at most universities build their own CPUs.
He did much more than just "design a CPU." He also built his own operating system and a basic interpretter.
--
I could not justify my existence if I were a turkey farmer. Would I terminate myself? Undoubtably, yes.
Re:big deal
by
Anonymous Coward
·
· Score: 1, Informative
There's TCP/IP for all the Apples. Home brew, but workable.
Karma Whore
by
Goalie_Ca
·
· Score: 0, Informative
I know i'm karma whoring but this guy's site is going to crash and burn. I copied the source from his page so if the format doesn't show up right, blame Taco.
-- welcome on my homepage --
On this side would like I mean built CCU to present, I call her " MyCPU ".
If you should see on the left of no menu, then click here .
I am conscious to me that it is a rather moved idea to build
itself its own CCU but perhaps give it of people, which I can animate
by this Website to something something similar or which even my CCU to
copy to want. I will make everything available on this side gradually,
which is needed for the reproduction of the CCU.
NEWS: The MyCPU system as the first discrete Web server: software >TCP/IP
Technical data of the CCU:
Technical structure
approx.. 50 logic ICs (74HCxx and 7ÃCxx), 7 EPROMS, 5 plates in the euro format
Current supply
simple 5V supply, power input smaller than 250 mA
Architecture
8 bits DATA, 16 bits addresses, similarly Harvard
Speed
5 MHz, dependent on the speed of the used EPROMS
Program memory
maximally 64kb addressable ROM
Data memory
maximally 64kb addressable RAM or I/O
Register
Hardware: 5 multi-function
registers, 1 constant register. Software (current Microcode
implementation): 1 accumulator, 2 index registers, 1 stack pointer
Arithmetic
High-speed aluminum, needs
only maximally three clocks per operation. Logical speed: approx.. 0,5
million multiplications per second, which is faster than 8051 based
Microcontroller count can.
Interrupt
1 maskable interrupt, RESET
Stack
256 byte stack in the conventional memory (0100h-01FFh), programmable stack pointer
Addressierungsmodi
14 addressing modes:
immediate 16bit, immediate 8-bits, immediate zeropage, direct absolute,
direct zeropage, direct absolute plus index, indirect absolute,
indirect zeropage, indirect absolute plus index, indirect zeropage plus
index, indirect plus index absolute, absolute pointers 16bit, absolute
pointers 8-bit, immediate of register
Command sentence
256 OI codes, on the average 10.5 clocks per instruction
Feature
By small modification of the hardware and another Microcode it is possible to copy other CPUs (e.g. 6502)
--
----
Go canucks, habs, and sens!
Re:All the news that's
by
dirvish
·
· Score: 2, Informative
Yes, it is. They often use day/month/year instead of month/day/year
Re:All the news that's
by
RevAaron
·
· Score: 4, Informative
Umm, also note that it was day.month.year- *periods* not slashes. According to worldwide standards, a period as a delineator denotes that it is in that format. Some folks will write the European format with slashes as well.
I am not sure why we americans use our silly middle-endian format. Seems to me little-to-big or big-to-little (like the Japanese with 2003-10-24) makes more sense than middle-little-big.
Isn't it great when some schmuck thinks he's coming up with a great joke? Ooooh, Aexia managed to make a dis on Slashdot's editing. Slashdot's mistakes are so few and far between that we can all just ignore that this one was just plain incorrect.:)
--
Working toward a usable PDA environment in the spirit of Newton OS: Dynapad
Re:How many platforms are in a notebook factor?
by
aminorex
·
· Score: 2, Informative
You forgot the SparcBook. Does it have to have been a commercial for-profit venture to qualify?
-- -I like my women like I like my tea: green-
Re:All the news that's
by
NightRain
·
· Score: 3, Informative
Some folks will write the European format with slashes as well.
That would be because some countries use the Day month year format and slashes. Like Australia for example. 07/06/2003
Aaah, the wonders of BASIC (and boredom)
by
mistermund
·
· Score: 2, Informative
Back in my day I had to write games in BASIC, on a 4.7Mhz computer with no hard disk and 128K of RAM. And I was grateful
Heh. Back in high school we all had TI-83's. You can do a lot with 28k and BASIC given enough mind-numbing general classes and a spot near the back of the room. We got to the point where we could program those things blindfolded (those keypads were a tad awkward) One friend reimplemented Oregon Trail. Another did a 3D plotter and a window manager frontend with app launching. Course, when the rare teacher took to resetting calculators before exams, all that fine work was lost.;^) There was talk of modifying beepers for two way wireless communication.
I know that my story pales in comparison to most of the audience here, but that's how it was for me.
Re:How many platforms are in a notebook factor?
by
HughsOnFirst
·
· Score: 4, Informative
Yes the lovely Tadpoles,
1)The Sparcbook and ultrabooks are Solaris based on sparc hardware
2)The PrecisionBook uses the PA-7300LC processor and runs HP unix
3)Don't forget the original GRiD Compass 1100, running GRiD-OS. That was
the very first hinged laptop.
http://www.total.net/~hrothgar/museum/Compass/
Magnetic bubbles for storage yummy
Now moving on to laptops NOT made of magnesium... and available pre 1984
4) Casio FP-200 , was primarily a spreadsheet machine and ran a built-in
software package called CETL (Casio Easy Table Language), a VisiCalc-like
language The FP-200 was built around a CMOS version of the Z80 and has 32K
of ROM and 8K of RAM, expandable to 32K. The FP-200 has an 8-line X 20 character
display. For graphics, 64 X 160 pixels can be individually addressed. Had
a full sized keyboard
5) WorkSlate from Convergent Technologies, was another spreadsheet machine,
and all the software packages on the WorkSlate were adaptations of the basic
spreadsheet program. The WorkSlate used a CMOS version of the 6800 The display
on the WorkSlate had 16 lines by 42 characters. Some lines were devoted to
status indicators, headings, and formulae; as a result, about 11 by 5 cells
of a spreadsheet are visible at a time.
6) The Teleram 3000 notebook portable, weighing in at nine pounds.
Completely standard keyboard; four-line by 80-character display; 128K of
internal bubble memory (expandable to 256K); and CP/M operating system.
7) The Radio Shack TRS-80 Model 100, actually made by Kyoto Ceramics
, the same company that makes Yashica and Contax cameras and those cool ceramic
knives. The Model 100 uses a CMOS version of the Z80 running at 2.5 MHz.
7.5) The NEC PC-8201 twin of the Radio Shack Model 100.. The 8201
was born six months or so earlier in Japan and is a somewhat different version
of the Kyoto Ceramics original.
8) The Epson HX-20 was the first true notebook size computer introduced.
The HX-20 uses a CMOS version of the Z80 mpu. It has 32K of ROM and 16K of
RAM, expandable to 32K with an external module. Mass storage is provided
in the form of a built-in microcassette recorder and a built-in printer and
a NiCad rechargeable battery that provides 50 hours of use
9) The MicroOffice RoadRunner uses a CMOS version of the Z80 mpu and has
16K of ROM and 48K of RAM. Four memory cartridge slots are found over the
keyboard for extra RAM memory and ROM software cartridges. These are addressed
from the CP/M-compatible operating system as devices A through D Also built
in is a schedule organizer, name/address organizer Word processing, Microsoft
Basic, and Sorcim SuperCalc. More packages are promised in the future.
10) Xerox 1810 notebook portable designed by Sunrise Systems with a CMOS
version of the Z80 with 32K of ROM and 16K of RAM, expandable to 65K.
11) Gavilan It had a touch pad below the display in 1983!!! And
it had windows, a trash basket and icons before the Mac, (but after the Lisa)
!
The Gavilan had a 16-bit 8088 cpu, 48K of ROM, and 64K and RAM, expandable
with up to four 32K plug-in capsules of blank memory or applications software
packages. Also built in was a 3 inch , 320K Hitachi floppy disk drive. (
remember those? looked just like a 5.25 or 8 inch floppy ) and an optional
snap-on printer !
"The most unusual feature of the Gavilan is the touch pad below
the display. This lets you manipulate objects on the screen by pointing at
them. A quick movement of your finger moves the cursor a long way while a
slow movement gives you fine control. Like Apple's Lisa system, pictorial
representations of objects such as file drawers, file folders, documents,
and a trash basket are shown on the screen.
Although the screen is capable of displaying eight lines of 80 characters,
in most cases, part of the screen will be devoted to menus in "windows' appropriate
to the software package currently in use. Thi
If you compare (early) midevel English and Germany texts side by side it is clearly visible that Germany and English are nothing but two dialects of the same language. Maybe it was comparable to today somebody coming from Texas speaking to somebody coming from NY or someone from Hamburg talking to someonefrom Munich.
This are (could be?) the times...
by
kju
·
· Score: 4, Informative
DIY electronics seems to be dying and i can't really understand why. I recently made some research for a own project and i came to the conclusion that it nowadays it is easier to design some decent hardware than ever before.
No more fiddling with a bunch of TTL/CMOS logic chips. You can get a programmable CPLD with 800 logic gates for 99 us cents (e.g. from xilinx). Free design software (also said to be running under linux with wine) is available too. 800 gates is enough for some really nice projects. In circuit programmable.
Or try a cheap controller. For example AVR RISC. They are fast, they are powerful, they can be programmed with a gcc-variant. Just take the chips a oscillator and go. Programmable with a cheap parport interface. Oh, and the best is the price: Starting at US$2.
Soldering it on a experimental board? Maybe, but what about designing a pcb? Take EAGLE as layout software (freeware version for non commercial use up to 1/2 eurocard, enough for some decent design). Get the pcb fabricated for example in hungary (US$21 for a whole eurocard, all inclusive).
So i hope we will see a return of home development. It is getting even cheaper and more powerful. I just read an announcement for a new FPGA with 1 million (!) gates which target price is under US$20. This is enough to even construct your own CPU. Wouldn't that be fun and educative?
So see the possibilities and go out and design something. And probably make the design available under some open license. The time has never been better before.
Re:How many platforms are in a notebook factor?
by
squiggleslash
·
· Score: 2, Informative
I don't think anyone's mentioned Clive Sinclair's Z88 which was immensely popular in the very late eighties when it came out. A Z80A based device with an 80x8 screen (IIRC), BBC Basic, and an "office" type suite which was based on the idea of a sort of super-functional spreadsheet that could also word process. It was about the size of an A4 sheet of paper (except obviously not as thin)
-- You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
Re:All the news that's
by
Mwongozi
·
· Score: 2, Informative
That would be because some countries use the Day month year format and slashes. Like Australia for example. 07/06/2003
And the UK.
Other FPGA CPU projects
by
nutznboltz
·
· Score: 2, Informative
Re:Not too far out--really!
by
Hacker+Cracker
·
· Score: 2, Informative
It was because there was no other interface to the thing (other than a dip switch) and the output had to be readable at each step of execution (it had two 7-segment displays and the dip switch selected which register to display). So the short answer is because of the inherent design limitations of the computer itself didn't lend itself to an automatically clocked design.
Slashdot Mirror
Undergrads at most universities build their own CPUs. It's just a matter of coughing up the $$ to fabricate them.
-- welcome on my homepage --
On this side would like I mean built CCU to present, I call her " MyCPU ".
If you should see on the left of no menu, then click here .
I am conscious to me that it is a rather moved idea to build itself its own CCU but perhaps give it of people, which I can animate by this Website to something something similar or which even my CCU to copy to want. I will make everything available on this side gradually, which is needed for the reproduction of the CCU.NEWS: The MyCPU system as the first discrete Web server: software >TCP/IP
Technical data of the CCU:
Technical structure approx.. 50 logic ICs (74HCxx and 7ÃCxx), 7 EPROMS, 5 plates in the euro format Current supply simple 5V supply, power input smaller than 250 mA Architecture 8 bits DATA, 16 bits addresses, similarly Harvard Speed 5 MHz, dependent on the speed of the used EPROMS Program memory maximally 64kb addressable ROM Data memory maximally 64kb addressable RAM or I/O Register Hardware: 5 multi-function registers, 1 constant register. Software (current Microcode implementation): 1 accumulator, 2 index registers, 1 stack pointer Arithmetic High-speed aluminum, needs only maximally three clocks per operation. Logical speed: approx.. 0,5 million multiplications per second, which is faster than 8051 based Microcontroller count can. Interrupt 1 maskable interrupt, RESET Stack 256 byte stack in the conventional memory (0100h-01FFh), programmable stack pointer Addressierungsmodi 14 addressing modes: immediate 16bit, immediate 8-bits, immediate zeropage, direct absolute, direct zeropage, direct absolute plus index, indirect absolute, indirect zeropage, indirect absolute plus index, indirect zeropage plus index, indirect plus index absolute, absolute pointers 16bit, absolute pointers 8-bit, immediate of register Command sentence 256 OI codes, on the average 10.5 clocks per instruction Feature By small modification of the hardware and another Microcode it is possible to copy other CPUs (e.g. 6502)----
Go canucks, habs, and sens!
Yes, it is. They often use day/month/year instead of month/day/year
FoundNews.com - get paid to blog.,
Umm, also note that it was day.month.year- *periods* not slashes. According to worldwide standards, a period as a delineator denotes that it is in that format. Some folks will write the European format with slashes as well.
:)
I am not sure why we americans use our silly middle-endian format. Seems to me little-to-big or big-to-little (like the Japanese with 2003-10-24) makes more sense than middle-little-big.
Isn't it great when some schmuck thinks he's coming up with a great joke? Ooooh, Aexia managed to make a dis on Slashdot's editing. Slashdot's mistakes are so few and far between that we can all just ignore that this one was just plain incorrect.
Working toward a usable PDA environment in the spirit of Newton OS: Dynapad
You forgot the SparcBook. Does it have to have
been a commercial for-profit venture to qualify?
-I like my women like I like my tea: green-
Some folks will write the European format with slashes as well.
That would be because some countries use the Day month year format and slashes. Like Australia for example. 07/06/2003
Back in my day I had to write games in BASIC, on a 4.7Mhz computer with no hard disk and 128K of RAM. And I was grateful
;^) There was talk of modifying beepers for two way wireless communication.
Heh. Back in high school we all had TI-83's. You can do a lot with 28k and BASIC given enough mind-numbing general classes and a spot near the back of the room. We got to the point where we could program those things blindfolded (those keypads were a tad awkward) One friend reimplemented Oregon Trail. Another did a 3D plotter and a window manager frontend with app launching. Course, when the rare teacher took to resetting calculators before exams, all that fine work was lost.
I know that my story pales in comparison to most of the audience here, but that's how it was for me.
1)The Sparcbook and ultrabooks are Solaris based on sparc hardware
2)The PrecisionBook uses the PA-7300LC processor and runs HP unix
3)Don't forget the original GRiD Compass 1100, running GRiD-OS. That was the very first hinged laptop.
http://www.total.net/~hrothgar/museum/Compass/
Magnetic bubbles for storage yummy
Now moving on to laptops NOT made of magnesium
4) Casio FP-200 , was primarily a spreadsheet machine and ran a built-in software package called CETL (Casio Easy Table Language), a VisiCalc-like language The FP-200 was built around a CMOS version of the Z80 and has 32K of ROM and 8K of RAM, expandable to 32K. The FP-200 has an 8-line X 20 character display. For graphics, 64 X 160 pixels can be individually addressed. Had a full sized keyboard
5) WorkSlate from Convergent Technologies, was another spreadsheet machine, and all the software packages on the WorkSlate were adaptations of the basic spreadsheet program. The WorkSlate used a CMOS version of the 6800 The display on the WorkSlate had 16 lines by 42 characters. Some lines were devoted to status indicators, headings, and formulae; as a result, about 11 by 5 cells of a spreadsheet are visible at a time.
6) The Teleram 3000 notebook portable, weighing in at nine pounds. Completely standard keyboard; four-line by 80-character display; 128K of internal bubble memory (expandable to 256K); and CP/M operating system.
7) The Radio Shack TRS-80 Model 100, actually made by Kyoto Ceramics , the same company that makes Yashica and Contax cameras and those cool ceramic knives. The Model 100 uses a CMOS version of the Z80 running at 2.5 MHz.
7.5) The NEC PC-8201 twin of the Radio Shack Model 100.. The 8201 was born six months or so earlier in Japan and is a somewhat different version of the Kyoto Ceramics original.
8) The Epson HX-20 was the first true notebook size computer introduced. The HX-20 uses a CMOS version of the Z80 mpu. It has 32K of ROM and 16K of RAM, expandable to 32K with an external module. Mass storage is provided in the form of a built-in microcassette recorder and a built-in printer and a NiCad rechargeable battery that provides 50 hours of use
9) The MicroOffice RoadRunner uses a CMOS version of the Z80 mpu and has 16K of ROM and 48K of RAM. Four memory cartridge slots are found over the keyboard for extra RAM memory and ROM software cartridges. These are addressed from the CP/M-compatible operating system as devices A through D Also built in is a schedule organizer, name/address organizer Word processing, Microsoft Basic, and Sorcim SuperCalc. More packages are promised in the future.
10) Xerox 1810 notebook portable designed by Sunrise Systems with a CMOS version of the Z80 with 32K of ROM and 16K of RAM, expandable to 65K.
11) Gavilan It had a touch pad below the display in 1983!!! And it had windows, a trash basket and icons before the Mac, (but after the Lisa) !
The Gavilan had a 16-bit 8088 cpu, 48K of ROM, and 64K and RAM, expandable with up to four 32K plug-in capsules of blank memory or applications software packages. Also built in was a 3 inch , 320K Hitachi floppy disk drive. ( remember those? looked just like a 5.25 or 8 inch floppy ) and an optional snap-on printer !
Actually you are not that far from the truth...
If you compare (early) midevel English and Germany texts side by side it is clearly visible that Germany and English are nothing but two dialects of the same language.
Maybe it was comparable to today somebody coming from Texas speaking to somebody coming from NY or someone from Hamburg talking to someonefrom Munich.
DIY electronics seems to be dying and i can't really understand why. I recently made some research for a own project and i came to the conclusion that it nowadays it is easier to design some decent hardware than ever before.
No more fiddling with a bunch of TTL/CMOS logic chips. You can get a programmable CPLD with 800 logic gates for 99 us cents (e.g. from xilinx). Free design software (also said to be running under linux with wine) is available too. 800 gates is enough for some really nice projects. In circuit programmable.
Or try a cheap controller. For example AVR RISC. They are fast, they are powerful, they can be programmed with a gcc-variant. Just take the chips a oscillator and go. Programmable with a cheap parport interface. Oh, and the best is the price: Starting at US$2.
Soldering it on a experimental board? Maybe, but what about designing a pcb? Take EAGLE as layout software (freeware version for non commercial use up to 1/2 eurocard, enough for some decent design). Get the pcb fabricated for example in hungary (US$21 for a whole eurocard, all inclusive).
So i hope we will see a return of home development. It is getting even cheaper and more powerful. I just read an announcement for a new FPGA with 1 million (!) gates which target price is under US$20. This is enough to even construct your own CPU. Wouldn't that be fun and educative?
So see the possibilities and go out and design something. And probably make the design available under some open license. The time has never been better before.
I don't think anyone's mentioned Clive Sinclair's Z88 which was immensely popular in the very late eighties when it came out. A Z80A based device with an 80x8 screen (IIRC), BBC Basic, and an "office" type suite which was based on the idea of a sort of super-functional spreadsheet that could also word process. It was about the size of an A4 sheet of paper (except obviously not as thin)
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
That would be because some countries use the Day month year format and slashes. Like Australia for example. 07/06/2003
And the UK.
http://www.fpgacpu.org/links.html
http://www.aracnet.com/~healyzh/pdp_fpga.html
Michael Sokolov is rumored to be working on a FPGA VAX-inspired CPU with intent to fab eventually.
The google translation/cache is here
It was because there was no other interface to the thing (other than a dip switch) and the output had to be readable at each step of execution (it had two 7-segment displays and the dip switch selected which register to display). So the short answer is because of the inherent design limitations of the computer itself didn't lend itself to an automatically clocked design.
-- Shamus
This space for rent! EZ terms!