On 3/13/25 06:36, Holm Tiffe via cctalk wrote:
Ok, this is a full fledged mainframe CPU.. not really what I want todo first.
That stuff tends to "explode" in sight of parts, needed power and space,
I know that.
On the other side I saw different controllers for PDP11/VAX stuff that
used the 290x to control "hardware". That are microprogrammed computers
w/o any system bus and macro-instructions. Even the controller of an DEC
RX01 RX02 is build around two AM2901.
(I'm a former east german from "behind the iron curtain" and I own
something
like a russian PDP11/23 clone, an "Elektronika E60" that was used from a
east german company "Carl Zeiss Jena" which had an dependance in my
hometown to steer an X-Ray Spectrometer. The russian dual 8" floppy
drive has also 2 pcs. of K1084BC1 .. AM2901)
My first idea is to build a digital clock with a single 2901 -
only micro programmed. Ok, it's total nonsense.. but all what we do here
is playing with some outdated stuff, so where this clock..
I hope that I could do this with an single 2901 RALU, that means I have
to calculate twice for 8 Bits, like the ALU in a Z80...
Later I could try to build something with the 49C402, AM29116 or WS59032
to save PCB space.. All that stuff is already in my stash of parts,
besides many 2901,2903,2909,11,10 etc...
Maybe I'm trying to get that PCB with the four AM29203 and AM2910 from
GE to life first.
The 2903 was a VERY nice bit slice chip, it could do
single-cycle multiply and divide, as it had an extra shift
register for the multiplier bits. The 29203 is pin
compatible, but faster. Once I got the whole system
running, I planned to upgrade to the 29203. I had planned to
make device controllers with 4 74S181s and a dual-port ram
chip for registers, and the control store would be 27C32
EPROMs of the fastest grade. I was hoping to get 4 MIPS
from these.
Of course, now this could all be built on a few FPGAs, and
get vastly higher performance.
Yes, a small peripheral controller would be a much more
practical project.
Jon