Emulators of Classic Computers

From: Holger Veit <holger.veit_at_ais.fhg.de>
Date: Mon Jan 19 09:31:52 2004

On Mon, Jan 19, 2004 at 07:31:07AM -0600, Christopher Cureau wrote:
>
>
> >Then it's high time somebody produced a _real_ computer kit. As in a pile
> >of standard logic chips (no microoprocessors, no programmed devices, no
> >FPGAs, although I will allow RAM :-))....
>
> I would really, really like to see something like this...it'd help me
> getting started with learining electronics, which is something I've really
                       ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Tssss. Not to discourage you, but a TTL computer with bazillions of ICs
is not really suited for newbies, although there is plenty to learn -
namely on those nasty aspects like circuit timing, delays, glitches,
noise on power and signal lines. TTL is to a large degree analog, not digital,
circuit development ;-)

You might not directly want to start with a monster like Computer 74 or
EGO, but perhaps with a simple ALU/register device: get a 2901 circuit
from BG-Micro and play a bit with it (a breadboard with lots of switches
and LEDs is sufficient). And then extend it with a 2909/-10/-11 from the same
source and build the micro control for that toy. This is already the
basic step towards an own homegrown system.

> wanted to do and not had any practical time to do.

:-) If time is your limiting factor, it will be your limiting factor
here as well.

Holger
Received on Mon Jan 19 2004 - 09:31:52 GMT