16 Nov
2005
16 Nov
'05
4:54 p.m.
Rumor has it that Ethan Dicks may have mentioned these words:
I've been thinking about the tiny-8008 project for
some time - I may
have to scrape together the parts and give it a go - I can always
borrow an 8008 from my pile of 11/34 spare parts.
I've been thinking of building my own 6809 project (I have four AVR
projects and a couple serial ports on a Linksys router I need to build
first, tho)...[1]
Originally I was going to design and build my own buss structure /
backplane ( I was thinking 80 pins - 40-pin IDE headers are bog-easy to
find... ;-) something that could expand to a 16-bit CPU....
First card would be a fully buffered CPU, next card might be 256K or 512K
RAM, 3rd card might be a small LED/LCD display (2x40 or somesuch) and of
course, one card full'o'blinkinlights... ;-)
My question: Would I be better to do that, or should I center it around an
existing buss, like VME or somesuch?
Of course, as soon as I do that, I'll have to rig
something up for a
4004... ;-) I think it wouldn't be too hard to make a 4004-based
digital clock, at least in terms of the programming.
I've been wanting to build a digital thermostat. "Why spend $50 on one from
the local hardware store, when I can build one for $100!" ;-) Naw, besides,
the prebuilt thingies don't give enough 'programmability' for my tastes.
Having started out with the 6809, personally I find it hard to get excited
about 4-bit CPUs, myself... ;-)
[[ Altho I did have at one time that Radio Shack single-TI-chip-4-bit
computer trainer thingy... ]]
Ah well, back to work.
Laterz,
Roger "Merch" Merchberger
[1] I just got the latest (non-CVS) tarball of PCB compiled on my new Linux
From Scratch 6.1 install on my laptop - I'm ready to start designing things.
--
Roger "Merch" Merchberger | "Profile, don't speculate."
SysAdmin, Iceberg Computers | Daniel J. Bernstein
zmerch at 30below.com |