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Don McKenzie
Guest
Thu Feb 25, 2010 10:57 pm
It seems that “Google” engineer Bill Buzbee isn’t interested in
microprocessors that can be purchased in marked. There is more fun to
build own. Several years ago he built first “Magic-1” processors
, but now he makes its documentations widely available in his project
website.
http://www.embedds.com/how-hard-is-to-build-a-processor/
Cheers Don...
--
Don McKenzie
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fritz
Guest
Thu Feb 25, 2010 11:13 pm
"Don McKenzie" <5V_at_2.5A> wrote in message
news:7uoa2jF5dnU1_at_mid.individual.net...
Quote:
It seems that “Google” engineer Bill Buzbee isn’t interested in
microprocessors that can be purchased in marked. There is more fun to
build own. Several years ago he built first “Magic-1” processors
, but now he makes its documentations widely available in his project
website.
http://www.embedds.com/how-hard-is-to-build-a-processor/
Why not ?
Someone should be keeping the old craft alive. Good on him !
You could ask 'why build museums' ?
I think you agree.
Jon Kirwan
Guest
Thu Feb 25, 2010 11:24 pm
On Fri, 26 Feb 2010 08:57:31 +1100, Don McKenzie <5V_at_2.5A>
wrote:
Quote:
It seems that “Google” engineer Bill Buzbee isn’t interested in
microprocessors that can be purchased in marked. There is more fun to
build own. Several years ago he built first “Magic-1” processors
, but now he makes its documentations widely available in his project
website.
http://www.embedds.com/how-hard-is-to-build-a-processor/
Cheers Don...
Thanks, Don. I absolutely LOVE doing this kind of thing. It
should be required work for anyone in embedded programming,
at least. 35 years ago I tried my hand at it and failed to
get much useful. It wasn't until I later got access to a
logic simulator that I was finally able to complete a
successful processor design with 7400 logic, not using the
74181 ALU by the way, though I never built what seemed to
work so well. Later, I picked up a Xilinx 4000 series demo
board and, for the very first time, learned to write VHDL and
finally coded up my first processor that worked!!! (I didn't
do the floorplanning by hand -- way over my head at the
time.)
I learned so much doing this, though.
Anyway, thanks for the link!!
Jon
TTman
Guest
Thu Feb 25, 2010 11:25 pm
"Don McKenzie" <5V_at_2.5A> wrote in message
news:7uoa2jF5dnU1_at_mid.individual.net...
Quote:
It seems that “Google” engineer Bill Buzbee isn’t interested in
microprocessors that can be purchased in marked. There is more fun to
build own. Several years ago he built first “Magic-1” processors
, but now he makes its documentations widely available in his project
website.
http://www.embedds.com/how-hard-is-to-build-a-processor/
Cheers Don...
Reminds me of the pdp11 look alike I worked on back in the early 70's... few
hundred ttl chips , 64 bit diode matrix microcode, 8K ferrite sotore driven
by loys of monostables to get the timing right....
I was used to poser some of the very first CNC machines in the UK- Herbert
BatchMAtic and in Germany - Boehringer Vxxx series lathes.
Those were the happy days......
petrus bitbyter
Guest
Fri Feb 26, 2010 12:11 am
"Don McKenzie" <5V_at_2.5A> schreef in bericht
news:7uoa2jF5dnU1_at_mid.individual.net...
Quote:
Back in '74 Elektor published a design of a computer built with TTL-logic.
They really made it work though I doubt any subscriber built it too.
petrus bitbyter
Joe Pfeiffer
Guest
Fri Feb 26, 2010 12:43 am
Cool! Over on alt.folklore.computers there was a recent thread about
projects implementing old CPUs with an FPGA. Very neat stuff out there
for the retrocomputing world.
--
As we enjoy great advantages from the inventions of others, we should
be glad of an opportunity to serve others by any invention of ours;
and this we should do freely and generously. (Benjamin Franklin)
Ian Bell
Guest
Fri Feb 26, 2010 12:16 pm
petrus bitbyter wrote:
Quote:
Back in '73 I worked on a 16 bit mini computer built entirely out of
TTL, complete with a row of toggle switches on the front panel so you
could enter machine code by hand. It had a paper tape reader and along
with a paper tape punch you could use the two pass assembler - that's a
lot of paper.
Cheers
ian
Tim Watts
Guest
Fri Feb 26, 2010 12:18 pm
James Harris <james.harris.1_at_googlemail.com>
wibbled on Friday 26 February 2010 10:52
Quote:
On 25 Feb, 22:24, Jon Kirwan <j...@infinitefactors.org> wrote:
On Fri, 26 Feb 2010 08:57:31 +1100, Don McKenzie <5...@2.5A
wrote:
It seems that Google engineer Bill Buzbee isn t interested in
microprocessors that can be purchased in marked. There is more fun to
build own.
...
Thanks, Don. I absolutely LOVE doing this kind of thing. It
should be required work for anyone in embedded programming,
at least.
That reminds me that there are some excellent course videos by David
Culler of Berkeley showing how to build a CPU from logic gates. A bit
of searching for his webcasts for course 61CL Fall 2009 in H.264 video
should bring them up.
I had no idea until working through the lectures that *I* could build
a CPU using components I already knew about. As part of the course he
shows how to do so by working up from logic gates.
James
I knew a chap (York University Computing Services) who claimed to have a
mate who built an elementary CPU from fruit machine relays[1]. Occupied a
bit of board about one square yard. He lost interest in building RAM from
more relays, so wedged a 1k RAM chip with suitable interfacing on the side.
Ran at about 1 IPS apparently...
[1] he got a box load from a surplus store, old stripped out ones. Had an
unusual contact configuration that made them quite suitable.
--
Tim Watts
Managers, politicians and environmentalists: Nature's carbon buffer.
James Harris
Guest
Fri Feb 26, 2010 12:52 pm
On 25 Feb, 22:24, Jon Kirwan <j...@infinitefactors.org> wrote:
Quote:
On Fri, 26 Feb 2010 08:57:31 +1100, Don McKenzie <5...@2.5A
wrote:
It seems that Google engineer Bill Buzbee isn t interested in
microprocessors that can be purchased in marked. There is more fun to
build own.
....
Quote:
Thanks, Don. I absolutely LOVE doing this kind of thing. It
should be required work for anyone in embedded programming,
at least.
That reminds me that there are some excellent course videos by David
Culler of Berkeley showing how to build a CPU from logic gates. A bit
of searching for his webcasts for course 61CL Fall 2009 in H.264 video
should bring them up.
I had no idea until working through the lectures that *I* could build
a CPU using components I already knew about. As part of the course he
shows how to do so by working up from logic gates.
James
Walter Banks
Guest
Fri Feb 26, 2010 4:10 pm
Don McKenzie wrote:
Quote:
It seems that “Google” engineer Bill Buzbee isn’t interested in
microprocessors that can be purchased in marked. There is more fun to
build own. Several years ago he built first “Magic-1” processors
, but now he makes its documentations widely available in his project
website.
http://www.embedds.com/how-hard-is-to-build-a-processor/
It is a lost art. In the 70's I taught a course that students built
a small computer out of lab modules of TTL chip's. My first
personal computer was micro coded PDP-8 hand built.
Ram was 1K (bits) parts on a wirewrap board.
Walter..
Jon Kirwan
Guest
Fri Feb 26, 2010 5:20 pm
On Fri, 26 Feb 2010 10:10:55 -0500, Walter Banks
<walter_at_bytecraft.com> wrote:
Quote:
Don McKenzie wrote:
It seems that “Google” engineer Bill Buzbee isn’t interested in
microprocessors that can be purchased in marked. There is more fun to
build own. Several years ago he built first “Magic-1” processors
, but now he makes its documentations widely available in his project
website.
http://www.embedds.com/how-hard-is-to-build-a-processor/
It is a lost art. In the 70's I taught a course that students built
a small computer out of lab modules of TTL chip's. My first
personal computer was micro coded PDP-8 hand built.
Ram was 1K (bits) parts on a wirewrap board.
Walter..
Oh, my, Walter. That would have been a wonderful class to
have taken. I only wish...
Jon
Bill Cooke
Guest
Fri Feb 26, 2010 5:49 pm
Walter Banks wrote:
Quote:
Don McKenzie wrote:
It seems that “Google” engineer Bill Buzbee isn’t interested in
microprocessors that can be purchased in marked. There is more fun to
build own. Several years ago he built first “Magic-1” processors
, but now he makes its documentations widely available in his project
website.
http://www.embedds.com/how-hard-is-to-build-a-processor/
It is a lost art. In the 70's I taught a course that students built
a small computer out of lab modules of TTL chip's. My first
personal computer was micro coded PDP-8 hand built.
Ram was 1K (bits) parts on a wirewrap board.
Walter..
In 1961 a colleague told me of a machine in a lab at Cornell named
CADET, which reputedly stood for "can't add, doesn't even try". But it
was a universal (Turing) machine. Most everyone has stood on the
shoulders of software to extend behavior. In another sense, cpu
development has also stood on the shoulders of software arts, for needs
drive real engineering, not possibilities, and software disciplines
provide the languages for expressing these needs.
Each to his own. Some yearn to create a theory, some to create a
bridge, some to create an impression. I still ponder the structure of a
(programmable) computer of light and heavy marbles, gates, and a bunch
of elevators.
-- Bill Cooke
Joe Pfeiffer
Guest
Fri Feb 26, 2010 8:44 pm
Bill Cooke <bcooke_at_cookedata.com> writes:
Quote:
Walter Banks wrote:
Don McKenzie wrote:
It seems that “Google” engineer Bill Buzbee isn’t interested in
microprocessors that can be purchased in marked. There is more fun to
build own. Several years ago he built first “Magic-1” processors
, but now he makes its documentations widely available in his project
website.
http://www.embedds.com/how-hard-is-to-build-a-processor/
It is a lost art. In the 70's I taught a course that students built
a small computer out of lab modules of TTL chip's. My first
personal computer was micro coded PDP-8 hand built.
Ram was 1K (bits) parts on a wirewrap board.
Walter..
In 1961 a colleague told me of a machine in a lab at Cornell named
CADET, which reputedly stood for "can't add, doesn't even try". But
it was a universal (Turing) machine. Most everyone has stood on the
shoulders of software to extend behavior. In another sense, cpu
development has also stood on the shoulders of software arts, for
needs drive real engineering, not possibilities, and software
disciplines provide the languages for expressing these needs.
IBM 1620. See
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_1620
Quote:
Each to his own. Some yearn to create a theory, some to create a
bridge, some to create an impression. I still ponder the structure of
a (programmable) computer of light and heavy marbles, gates, and a
bunch of elevators.
Another fun project!
--
As we enjoy great advantages from the inventions of others, we should
be glad of an opportunity to serve others by any invention of ours;
and this we should do freely and generously. (Benjamin Franklin)
Vladimir Vassilevsky
Guest
Fri Feb 26, 2010 9:17 pm
Don McKenzie wrote:
Quote:
It seems that “Google” engineer Bill Buzbee isn’t interested in
microprocessors that can be purchased in marked.
It is trivial to build a processor. This type of project is a semester
work for a student. It is hard to make commercially viable processor,
though.
VLV
Swanny
Guest
Fri Feb 26, 2010 9:19 pm
Walter Banks wrote:
Quote:
Don McKenzie wrote:
It seems that “Google” engineer Bill Buzbee isn’t interested in
microprocessors that can be purchased in marked. There is more fun to
build own. Several years ago he built first “Magic-1” processors
, but now he makes its documentations widely available in his project
website.
http://www.embedds.com/how-hard-is-to-build-a-processor/
It is a lost art. In the 70's I taught a course that students built
a small computer out of lab modules of TTL chip's. My first
personal computer was micro coded PDP-8 hand built.
Ram was 1K (bits) parts on a wirewrap board.
Walter..
I wonder how many kiddies these days actually own a wirewrap tool?
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