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The 8-Bit Computer That's Been Built By Hand

Posted by Soulskill on from the just-enough-bits-for-mario dept.

nk497 writes "Forget snapping a few components into a motherboard — programming enthusiast Jack Eisenmann has made his own PC from scratch. His Duo Adept, as he's named it, features 64KB of main memory, 256 bytes of RAM and, in total, 263 lines of code for his homemade OS. Sure, it can't run Crysis, but it does run a game he's written himself."

24 of 161 comments (clear)

  1. Old school by Zakabog · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I wasn't around for this sort of stuff but wasn't this the sort of thing Radio Shacks customers were doing 25+ years ago?

    1. Re:Old school by j00r0m4nc3r · · Score: 3, Funny

      TTL chips? Luxury! When I was a lad we had to use coconuts and vine to fashion NAND gates.

    2. Re:Old school by Dachannien · · Score: 2

      There are two differences. One, he didn't use a prefab microprocessor - he built one from gates, counters, etc. And two, his website hasn't collapsed from the slashdotting.

    3. Re:Old school by msobkow · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The hard part is finding the loose wire.

      --
      I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
    4. Re:Old school by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Err, I may have confused this with another story - from here. If I have, sorry.

      Neverthless, it seems this story is, however, not unique even in the modern day.

    5. Re:Old school by TrisexualPuppy · · Score: 2

      TTL chips? Luxury! When I was a lad we had to use coconuts and vine to fashion NAND gates.

      Gilligan, don't forget the NOT gate that we fashioned out of the two transistors from the radio or the infinite power source that came out of it. Now why couldn't have that satellite flown overhead a few moments after we completed the digital telecommunicator device?

      --The Professor

    6. Re:Old school by barneythebigdog · · Score: 2

      you are missing the point here...this was done by a kid who just finished high school...i think it is amazing!

    7. Re:Old school by Jeremi · · Score: 4, Funny

      A thousand monkeys standing around a box of parts would "accidentally" build a computer

      Ah, I see you are familiar with the TRS-80.

      --


      I don't care if it's 90,000 hectares. That lake was not my doing.
  2. To bake an apple pie from scratch... by John.P.Jones · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Ever since Cosmos I can't take the phrase 'from scratch' seriously.

    Also there is this TED video where a guy tries to build a toaster from raw materials...

    1. Re:To bake an apple pie from scratch... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      http://www.ted.com/talks/thomas_thwaites_how_i_built_a_toaster_from_scratch.html

    2. Re:To bake an apple pie from scratch... by tylernt · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Also there is this TED video where a guy tries to build a toaster from raw materials...

      I don't think people appreciate the "tech tree" (to use Starcraft parlance) you have to walk down to get to the simplest of modern household items. The toaster is a good example, but now imagine starting from zero -- you can't even start with iron ore, because you don't have any tools to mine it with! So start with banging rocks to get something sharp you can use to cut down a tree, so you can make a handle to make a stone axe. Hopefully this is enough to get some iron ore, but now you also need to make something to smelt your ore in, such as a bloomery. And for that, you need charcoal. And for that...

      Basically, the TED guy making his toaster cheated by used modern tools to get his raw materials. And even with cheating, his toaster never toasted any bread.

      The tech tree for a dollar store pocket calculator is staggering, let alone a Space Shuttle. I don't think many people are conscious of this when they toss that toaster in the garbage and spend $10 on a new one.

      --
      DRM 'manages access' in the same way that a prison 'manages freedom'
  3. Re:very cool by Lord+of+Hyphens · · Score: 2

    Yeah, there's a upper-level undergraduate course that does single-board computers with a 8088 MPU and some supporting hardware. It's a mess and I personally believe that the course should be changed to give a "interfacing with reality" bent to it, as a single MCU can be tuned to do the same (external memory bus, etc) and you can go beyond the "look I made a light blink" to "Look I can actually do something useful with this thing".

    --
    "I've spent my whole life figuring out crazy ways to do things. It'll work." -- Montgomery Scott, "Relics"
  4. Re:not quite... by Dachannien · · Score: 2

    He still used a microprocessor in an integrated circuit.

    Really? Which one did he use?

  5. 2 Memes With One Stone by Scarletdown · · Score: 2, Funny

    I have to ask (since at the time I am writing this, no one else has done so yet)...

    Does it run Linux?

    And if it does, just imagine a Beowulf cluster of these things.

    --
    This space unintentionally left blank.
  6. Homebrew CPU runs Minix by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Here's one that running Minix: http://www.homebrewcpu.com/

  7. Reminds me of the one by Jim+Buzbee · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Reminds me of the one my brother built here except my brother's computer runs Minux.

  8. Wrong direction by iamacat · · Score: 2

    Everyone has right to their own hobbies, but think what can be accomplished with the same amount of labor and modern parts. Instead of making a CPU from hundreds of TTL gates, build a personal supercomputer from hundreds of ARM processors and custom operating system to effectively use that power for virtual reality or physics simulations. Hobbyists who has done this decades ago were futuristic not retro, creating devices that were not widely available, at least to private individuals.

  9. Right direction by jabberw0k · · Score: 2

    It's the right direction for demonstrating that computers are based on discrete logical components, no matter how tiny and embedded in a chip; and the right direction for demonstrating that, given enough time and information, it would be possible to truly understand any digital device.

    Hmm, I wonder how many TTL chips I would need for a nice little PDP-11...

  10. Re:not quite... by Darinbob · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It looks like he used actual 74xx series TTL chips to make the CPU. From the parts list he isn't doing microcoding, and isn't even using ALU or bit-slice MSI chips. It's the real thing.

  11. relay computer by mbreeze · · Score: 2

    Another interesting computer built from electrical relays.

  12. Fun with ICs by tftp · · Score: 2

    He certainly had some fun building this. The wires are used probably because he wasn't sure that everything works right; it's much easier to rework a wire connection than an inner PCB trace.

    I suspect he is a strong amateur, but not a professional. A professional would design the whole thing in a simulator first, and once that works he'd implement it on a PCB (if not an FPGA.)

    I personally haven't built processors, but I built a few peripherals for PDP11/LSI11, all from discrete logic. And I serviced IBM 360/370 systems [long time ago] - they were built exactly this way, but were a bit more modular.

  13. Re:It's me, the creator. by Boxtracod · · Score: 2

    I made an account just to emphasize the point: I, Jack Eisenmann, built the DUO Adept in highschool, and I have no formal education in electronics. I learned everything by experimenting with breadboards, getting tips from online users, and poking around Google.

  14. EHEM -From the creator. by Boxtracod · · Score: 2

    I somewhat dislike the Slashdot commenting system. So for the 3rd time, since I want to stand up for myself, to avoid having a "hidden" comment I am going to restate: I, Jack Eisenmann, built the DUO Adept in highschool, and I have no formal education in electronics. I learned everything by experimenting with breadboards, getting tips from online users, and poking around Google. I don't feel that the blurb does justice for my accomplishments.

  15. TTL computer from Electronics Australia by Ozoner · · Score: 2

    Very similar to the "Educ-8" TTL computer from Electronics Australia mag in 1974

    see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:EDUC-8_Microcomputer.jpg

    and http://www.sworld.com.au/steven/educ-8/