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Developer Creates DIY 8-Bit CPU
MaizeMan writes "Not for the easily distracted: a Belmont software developer's hand-built CPU was featured in Wired recently. Starting with a $50 wire wrap board, Steve Chamberlin built his CPU with 1253 pieces of wire, each wire wrapped by hand at both ends. Chamberlin salvaged parts from '70s and '80s era computers, and the final result is an 8-bit processor with keyboard input, a USB connection, and VGA graphical output. More details are available on the developer's blog."
I own a two-bit computer. My dad gave it to me. I know it is two bits because before he gave it to me he would often remark "I hate this ******* two bit computer."
(Yes, it is also reproductive.)
When things get complex, multiply by the complex conjugate.
Sorry, I just had to ask.
Run and catch, run and catch, the lamb is caught in the blackberry patch.
The functional components are all off-the-shelf TTL ICs.
Well, he is only one person, after all. Even if he was studly enough to build it from vacuum tubes, he probably wouldn't be winding his own filaments.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
That's the way it used to be done: I wouldn't claim that DEC engineers did not "make" the PDP-1 because it was constructed from wire-wrap discrete components. The only other sensible option for someone who wants to "make" their own CPU at home would be to program an FPGA, which is certainly less interesting than what this guy has done.
Uh, maybe not. :-)
built his CPU with 1253 pieces of wire
Farnsworth: Let me show you around. That's my lab table, and this is my work stool, and over there is my intergalactic spaceship. And here is where I keep assorted lengths of wire.
Fry: Whoa! A real live space ship!
Farnsworth: I designed it myself. Let me show you some of the different lengths of wire I used.
You might, however, be able to adapt LUnix to it!
http://rocknerd.co.uk
Yeah, baby...
Back before the days of the 4004, 8008, and 8080, when we built computers, we REALLY built computers.
None of this: take a pre-built-motherboard, add a pre-built-power-supply, add a pre-built graphics card...
oblig: get off my lawn
Karma: Excellent. 15 moderator points expire sometime.
It is about time that Intel has some competition.
All the board level products I designed in the early 90s had to be prototyped with wire wrapping. Even if you are careful, by the time you do hundreds of connections it is almost inevitable there is some flaw. You might miscount a row of pins and attach to the wrong pin. The process of layering multiple connection to a single pin might damage a wire at the bottom. Wires might break or make a shaky connection that comes or goes.
I would not ever want to go back to that, but it did two useful things: The plodding physical process of "I'm now connecting this to that." forced a slow, comprehensive walk through of your design which can reveal design mistakes. The other is honing debugging skills of intermittent problems: "Is this a design flaw or a wire making poor contact?".
To have fun is not a good enough reason to do something?
I guess you would be happier if he was just another fat slob who "has fun" by watching American Idol?
This is quite possibly the most asinine comment I have seen on Slashdot in a long time.
Magic-1, a 16-bit TTL-based, wire-wrap PCB computer.
Slashdot posted an article on Magic-1 when it was completed years ago as well.
Site & blog: http://www.mayaposch.com
I'm gonna get off his lawn for sure!
My blog
There needs to be more Steve Chamberlin's in the world. Personal (or enterprise, for that matter) computing hardware has hit a mass exploitation mark; computers today have such an abundance of resources, storage and processing power, any developer I've had to work with in the last half of decade sees the computer, much like Steve mentioned in TFA, as "...like black boxes... and understand what they do, but not how they do it." which leads to blatant disregard for anything, really sloppy ways of coding and development, zero ideology or best practice on how to truly harness and control resources efficiently. I don't expect anyone to have a physics background or be some die-hard electrical engineer, but there's definitely something to be said for growing up and working with early computer models where you had to give two shakes about that stuff. This is very cool, indeed.
slashdot is really sucking hard these days.
the guy makes an off-the-cuff comment about his motivation, and some braindead moron on slashdot criticizes him for it.
HE MADE A FUCKING COMPUTER, YOU MOUTH-BREATHING DIPSHIT.
of course he had motivation! how could you sum up the motivation in just a couple of words?
what worthless piece of shit you are
This sounds like the kind of project any computer engineering undergrad curriculum would cover. Myself, I have had to design/build 4 different processors of varying complexity (basic mips, pipelined, superscalar, etc) during my years as an undergrad. Its cool nonetheless and by no means "easy".
Sounds like the right mag for this project, though make is the more appropriate one.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
He didn't say it's a Turing Machine, he said it's Turing-complete, which means that (in theory) it can ran any conceivable program, with the obvious limits of RAM/Disk.
The limits of memory make the proper term "LBA-complete", where the required memory varies linearly with the size of the input, rather than "Turing-complete". But in practice, "Turing-complete" means LBA-complete.
Damn right, the lazy fucker should have dug the iron ore up himself, then dug up the coal to fire his home-built kiln so that he could create his own iron. Of course he would have had to hand-build bellows to create steel, and maybe he should have home built EVERYTHING ELSE in the production pipeline, including hunting his own food every night from his homebuilt house. Luckily he invented his own language to communicate with other people so that he could coordinate things!
The article mentions "Z-80" among the parts used. The Z-80 itself is an 8-Bit CPU.
The blog says "Build the CPU from scratch, primarily using basic 7400-series logic. No 6502, Z-80, etc."
That's the only reference to the Z80 I can find in either the article or the blog.
Clean rooms are needed at some level. Cleanliness is the key factor. If you're doing this in a garage workshop you'll not be doing 45nm process. You'll be closer to 45um (1/20mm), along the lines of the medium scale and large scale integration done in the '60's and '70's. If you're willing to accept losses and low yield, you can accomplish this using simple bench top equipment. Having done something similar in a university lab back in the '80s, I can assure you it CAN BE DONE.
"Windows: A thirty-two bit extension and graphical shell to a sixteen bit patch to an eight bit operating system originally coded for a four bit microprocessor which was written by a two-bit company that can't stand one bit of competition."
Fact: Everything I say is fiction.