I have been thinking about doing an Instrucables article on my computer project for a while now as the goal of this project being on the internet in the first place is to help people with a similar goal. For those of you who are not familiar with Instructables, it is a comprehensive DIY website written by makers from all corners of life. All it takes to write a how-to article is to register for an account and share what you do. I finally got around to writing my article on how to build an 8-bit computer from scratch. It took me three days due to the increased workload as my school year comes to an end, but I finally completed what I hope to be an easy to understand article on how to go about building your own computer from TTL logic.
Instructables - How to Build An 8-Bit Computer
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Nice work Kyle!
I was looking through your instructable and saw that you’ve used the same chips as I have in my 4-bit (8-bit address) project. I originally started with 74LS283’s but then I opted to go with the 74LS183’s because of the added flexibility.
I’m stalled out on microcoding my control rom at the moment and I got distracted by that 1-bit CPU concept that circulated on HAD about a month ago but I should be able to get back in gear and finish it up in the next week or so. Do you have any video of yours in action?
Cheers,
Andrew
Amazing work. Did you follow Malvino’s SAP-1 or build something else?
I based the design off of the SAP-1 and modified it to add functionality like the JMP command as well as the possibility for 16 OP codes instead of only 5.
Hi Kyle , I’m stalled out on microcoding my control rom at the moment and I got distracted by that 1-bit CPU concept that circulated on HAD about a month ago but I should be able to get back in gear and finish it up in the next week or so. Do you have any video of yours in action?
That’s awesome. I’ve been wanting to build a computer for a while now. Will start this weekend 🙂
… add? Did you hav done it?
Interesting article and Instructable! This is something they should get groups to do at Uni (when studying computer science). I was thinking, if you managed to tidy up the cables (say, with cable ties) and routed them in the correct way it would expose much more of the circuitry and make the whole thing more visually appealing.
The next time I try this I might try wire-wrapping. If done right, everything should be a lot less cluttered.
Going to attempt to build my own computer again.
I built one many years ago actually using the same book (and it essentialy worked) as you did for a reference. I am surprised it is still usefull and current.
I got bogged down on software.
I gave up when I couldn’t figure out how to program an EEPROM
Probably will buy a burner his time.
I hope to learn as much from you as possible.
I would be great if there was some way to share code.
I have been looking over the sap-2 architecture and discovered that it has the jz instruction. I have been wondering about those kind of branch instructions for a long time. How would I add branch instructions to the computer? I know it has something to do with the two flags attached to the alu.
Good and thorough tutorial you wrote on this, the whole hand drawn explanation from the small parts and up is great 🙂