22 Oct
1999
22 Oct
'99
9:04 a.m.
-----Original Message-----
From: Chuck McManis <cmcmanis(a)freegate.com>
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
Date: Friday, October 22, 1999 3:24 PM
Subject: More on "discrete" CPUs
Having read through the discussion, I sat down and
sketched out some "flip
chip" type designs. Units of logic that could be wired together to create
the CPU. When I did this I was striving for a fairly universal design so,
as John put it, we could have a whole bunch made and get the benefit of
volume manufacturing.
Good stuff Chuck. The only other idea I have is if we can standardize 4
SMALL boards and just
put them on one larger sheet they can be cut after they are manufactured
(which eliminates the double connector).
Gotta resolve yet which CPU to build (UNIVAC, PDP 8, whatever) and the
standard circuits... (quad flip flop, whatever).
To keep it small, bit-serial cpu, light bulbs :-) , flip switches and .....
?
Well, not too suprisingly (ask the right question, get the same answer) I
was about halfway through my sketched out design when I realized I was
duplicating something I had seen in a databook, a Xilinx databook to be
precise.
The flip chips are the "CLB"s (Complex Logic Blocks) of your standard gate
array design. The backplane is the interconnects.
The problem is reduced to the complexity of implementing the FPGA
architecture and then having the tools send out wrap lists rather than
routing configs :-)
--Chuck