Build an 8-bit computer from scratch

“I built a programmable 8-bit computer from scratch on breadboards using only simple logic gates. I documented the whole project in a series of YouTube videos and on this web site.”

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This seems like a great follow-up to the nand2tetris book, when/if I finish that.

Best to be prepared for the dystopian near future in which all factory made chips are specialized for personal information farming and ad-targeting. :wink:

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A powerful open source chip (hardware) that rivals x86 needs to be reality.

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That would be great. Actually I’d be happy with any substantial progress in open source hardware. Would love chip fabrication, even for much less powerful but still general purpose chips, to more accessible to the public. It seems like it would open up so many interesting possibilities, as has happened with software.

EDIT: On this subject, this paper in Nature was mentioned on HN today – a method to print transistors on paper with a commercially available ink-jet printer and silver nanoparticle ink. The authors claim “operating speed up to 18.21 GHz.”

Inkjet Printing of High Performance Transistors with Micron Order Chemically Set Gaps
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-01391-2

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Here are a few more sites about building computers from scratch:

BMOW1 – The Big Mess o’ Wires computer

MyCPU

Magic-1

Relay Computer

These sites seem to provide lots of information for people wanting to follow their examples.
Amazing projects!

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This!

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Those projects are pretty cool Dan!

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A great looking blog about building an 8 bit computer using relays:

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LOTS of cool-looking projects here.
https://www.homebrewcpuring.org/

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