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Kestrel Computer Project
- kazinator 11y agoSpelled "kestral" in Nethack. :)
- fjarlq 11y agoNo, it's spelled "kestrel" in NetHack. https://github.com/NetHack/NetHack/blob/NetHack-3.6.0/dat/bogusmon.txt#L97 https://github.com/NetHack/NetHack/blob/NetHack-3.6.0/dat/bo...
- kazinator 11y agoI mis-remembered. It's a monster from Rogue! I could swear I played some Rogue variant very long ago where it was spelled with an "a". Quick research shows that Rogue had it as "kestrel" since forever, though. These "hallucinatory monsters" ("bogusmon") seem like a new addition to Nethack.
- fjarlq 11y agoHeh, I wondered if you were actually remembering such an esoteric fact about NetHack. Looks like kestrel in NetHack dates back to version 3.1.0, released January 1993. The comment says "Rogue", so I'm sure it was done in tribute. They also added emu, xeroc, and venus flytrap as monster names from Rogue, used while the player is hallucinating.
- tux1968 11y agoThe Kestrel-4 sounds great. It's a shame it was canceled April 2nd.
- ZenoArrow 11y agoWhere does it say that? I don't see any blog posts about the cancellation of Kestrel-4.
- gaze 11y agoThey best not be suggesting that they run a RISC-V in the fpga.
- cesarbs 11y agoIt's the fifth bullet point in the list at the top of the page.
- gaze 11y agoEither they buy a risc-v chip someone taped out or they synthesize one in the FPGA. The latter will be competitive with 10-20 year old technology.
- kc5tja 11y agoI'm planning on using a soft-core processor because FPGA dev boards are plentiful and relatively inexpensive. My plans are to await silicon from LowRISC project before considering real glass.
- striking 11y agoPerhaps the goal is to eventually implement an ASIC version.
- gaze 11y agoTapeouts are many, many millions for something that will compete with anything in even your phone
- striking 11y agoYeah, I know. I didn't expect the goal to be reasonable. Nothing about the project is really all that reasonable, considering FPGAs are nearly entirely proprietary across the board, and because it'd be super expensive to make something that is actually truly open. But good for them for trying something new.
- polskibus 11y agoIsn't kestrel the name of the new asp.net server?
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- tomcam 11y agoIt's based on Oberon! Woo hoo!
- kc5tja 11y agoI tried to port Oberon, but was not yet successful in getting the compiler fully debugged. I also need to finish the system image linker so I can generate bootable images. For this reason, I pushed ahead with putting Forth in firmware. However, I do intend on completing Oberon at some point (or trying to solicit help in that area; porting OSes is most definitely NOT my strong suit). Instead of putting in ROM, though, it'll be bootable off of SD card.
- codezero 11y agoThe link to the Nexys2 doesn't result in any products, is that still available?
- kc5tja 11y agoNo, it went out of stock after I'd put the site up. I'll remove the link (or find an alternative to something that describes what the Nexys-2 is) when I go to update docs. I have not selected a replacement board yet (since my Nexys-2 still works fine, I intend on continuing to use it for the time being). If, after I post a complete set of Verilog sources, someone wants to try porting to the hardware of their choice, I'll be happy to include relevant links on the site. (Or until I change boards myself, whichever comes first.)
- danbruc 11y agoThis project seems to be in a superposition of enormously ambitious project, light-years away from reaching the goal and elaborated joke. Does that sound about right? I really have a hard time telling from looking at the repository and I never heard of it before.
- ZenoArrow 11y agoDepends on what you mean. If you're looking for a computer that can replace your daily driver, then yes it's years away from that. However, if you're looking for a new platform to explore and tinker with without needing FPGA knowledge, then it's close to that already.
- nickpsecurity 11y agoIt's an interesting exploration. I at least got two things out of this: 1. That the two-pass assembler design from 6502 was only 2KB. Tricks from software like that tend to come in handy later on embedded systems. 2. His links on stepwise refinement of the Forth interpreter give a nice illustration of the concept. I rarely see an example that doesn't involve formal methods that turn most away or some useless objective. So, mostly him having fun in his spare time. Yet, at least two reasons to keep a link to the project. Also, he ended up using the approach I keep suggesting here: port the Oberon System because it's simple and has plenty of features. He's doing that on Kesterel 3.
- nickpsecurity 11y agoOn an unrelated note, Kestrel Institute has been doing high assurance systems synthesized from specifications for a long time: http://www.kestrel.edu/home/projects/ http://www.kestrel.edu/home/projects/ Maybe people will find that Kestrel more interesting. :)
- dreamcompiler 11y agoThat was my first thought: "Is Cordell Green building a computer? Cool!"
- nickpsecurity 11y ago"Using Specware, we've specified and synthesized an entire computer. We even have flow charts of the hand movements of assdmbly line sorkers. The entire process, from design to manufacturing, should be correct by construction. As will be the computer." He then added, "That's assuming the following assumptions are true. There's about 500 of them do bear with me on this PowerPoint..."
- dreamcompiler 11y agoNice. I should have known.
- bickfordb 11y agoAnother Kestrel: https://kestrel.soe.ucsc.edu/ https://kestrel.soe.ucsc.edu/
- freekh 11y agoJust yesterday I was dreaming about doing something very similar! I wonder how he have had time to get so far - it is extremely impressive!
- freekh 11y agoAha, I didn't understand that the kestrel 4 was an April fools joke? Blazemonger support? :) I was seriously dreaming about doing something similar but kestrel 3 is real afaics :)
- kc5tja 11y agoKestrel-3 is software emulation only at this point. However, after making some last minute touches to the system firmware (a dialect of eForth for both simplicity and hackability), I will switch over to working on Verilog. I already have video, keyboard, and GPIO cores written, so I only need to focus on the CPU.
- freekh 11y agoAha, I didn't understand that the kestrel 4 was an April fools joke? Blazemonger support? :) I was seriously dreaming about doing something similar but kestrel 3 is real afaics :)