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I've been following ben eater for about 2 years now. I've learned so much from his well explained well illustrated videos. Right now it's kinda hard for me to g

by atum47 7y ago

I've been following ben eater for about 2 years now. I've learned so much from his well explained well illustrated videos. Right now it's kinda hard for me to get my hands on every component he uses, but soon I'll take a shot at building a 8 bit computer as well. I'll may start with a full adder built with transistors only.

dreamcompiler 7y ago
That's gonna take a lot of transistors. I suggest doing it with gates instead. Using transistors is like programming a computer with machine language; using gates is more like a good macro assembler. Building yourself one NAND gate with transistors and resistors would be a valuable learning experience, but building 100 of them won't teach you anything new.
- atum47 7y ago
  I see, I just think it will be cool to have one on my desk. Take a look a this video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xISG4nGTQYE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xISG4nGTQYE) I got the idea from it.
  - dreamcompiler 7y ago
    I agree the end result would be cool. I just wouldn't have the attention span for that much low-level dinking :-)
    - eatonphil 7y ago
      Yes that's hard to debate. But if you want to get the experience without the physical complexity you can always build an 8-bit computer in a simulator like they do in many college courses. I used Logisim [0] at college for this following the Harris and Harris [1] textbook and it was a straightforward experience. [0] http://www.cburch.com/logisim/ http://www.cburch.com/logisim/ [1] https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/13816512.David_Money_Harris https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/13816512.David_Money_H...
lnsru 7y ago
Hi, I don’t know your background, but why are you not building your 8 bit computer in FPGA? There are many nice cheap boards like MAX1000 from Arrow or Lattice. It’s really cool learning project! Transistor only design will have many problems: transistors are bigger than you think and small ones in VML0806 package are almost impossible to solder by hand.
- atum47 7y ago
  I'm a software engineer undergrad, I do most high level stuff. I took digital circuits on college, cause I like electronics. One day watching videos on YouTube I saw ben eater project and loved it. I thinker with Arduino and Raspberry pi, but never built anything cool like that. I just want to give it a try, I guess

by atum47 7y ago

dreamcompiler 7y ago

That's gonna take a lot of transistors. I suggest doing it with gates instead. Using transistors is like programming a computer with machine language; using gates is more like a good macro assembler. Building yourself one NAND gate with transistors and resistors would be a valuable learning experience, but building 100 of them won't teach you anything new.

atum47 7y ago
I see, I just think it will be cool to have one on my desk. Take a look a this video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xISG4nGTQYE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xISG4nGTQYE) I got the idea from it.
- dreamcompiler 7y ago
  I agree the end result would be cool. I just wouldn't have the attention span for that much low-level dinking :-)
  - eatonphil 7y ago
    Yes that's hard to debate. But if you want to get the experience without the physical complexity you can always build an 8-bit computer in a simulator like they do in many college courses. I used Logisim [0] at college for this following the Harris and Harris [1] textbook and it was a straightforward experience. [0] http://www.cburch.com/logisim/ http://www.cburch.com/logisim/ [1] https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/13816512.David_Money_Harris https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/13816512.David_Money_H...

lnsru 7y ago

Hi, I don’t know your background, but why are you not building your 8 bit computer in FPGA? There are many nice cheap boards like MAX1000 from Arrow or Lattice. It’s really cool learning project! Transistor only design will have many problems: transistors are bigger than you think and small ones in VML0806 package are almost impossible to solder by hand.

atum47 7y ago
I'm a software engineer undergrad, I do most high level stuff. I took digital circuits on college, cause I like electronics. One day watching videos on YouTube I saw ben eater project and loved it. I thinker with Arduino and Raspberry pi, but never built anything cool like that. I just want to give it a try, I guess