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New version of Apple-1 DIY kits start shipping
- disposekinetics 6y agoHere's a direct link https://smartykit.io/ https://smartykit.io/
- Bluestein 6y agoI found it peculiar that the original post went to a link to the web browser version of a newsletter. The "archive" of past newsletters felt like a blog, of sorts :) - https://us5.campaign-archive.com/?u=883bed4bfa283136d355f1b26&id=75ec180e73 https://us5.campaign-archive.com/?u=883bed4bfa283136d355f1b2... I thought they would at least have a website ...
- elif 6y agoit's to manage engagement
- mulmen 6y agoManage engagement by not allowing engagement you can't manage?
- sergpanarin 6y agoWell guys, yeah, you are right – we'd better make a blog section on our website. Will do that!
- mulmen 6y agoThanks! I'd like to learn more about the project. It looks really exciting!
- elif 6y agoYour question doesn't make sense. Why let MC manage engagement when you can do it yourself? Is that the question? Like what lmao
- mulmen 6y agoMC is managing email engagement. I don't want to engage via email. I want to engage their blog directly. MC is so fixated on the mailing list "engagement" that there is no way to escape from the mailing list and learn more about the product.
- jacurtis 6y agoThis is a really cool concept. Computers are getting so advanced now that many of us spend our hours fighting about performance differences of Intel vs AMD vs Apple Silicon, without even fully understanding how a computer works. The glory days of hacking together a computer are seemingly gone, but this product appears to attempt to bring that back and I embrace it. I signed up to get notified. I think the $99 pricepoint is extremely reasonable. Even if this ends up being a project you complete over a single weekend. There's a lot to learn here.
- 52-6F-62 6y agoTo that end, Elements of Computing Systems (not as fun of a name) really did it for me. I recommend it every chance I get. https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/elements-computing-systems https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/elements-computing-systems
- projectileboy 6y agoThat book is a gem! And the related website has additional good stuff: https://www.nand2tetris.org/ https://www.nand2tetris.org/
- brianjunyinchan 6y agoThe Pattern on the Stone is also excellent, especially for audiences less familiar with computers. It has always struck me as a paramount example of "education" in that it shares relative illumination in a very digestible format. I wish I'd read it years earlier.
- jrmg 6y agoCharles Petzold’s ‘Code’ is a masterpiece.
- colejohnson66 6y agoThere’s a second edition coming out after all this time: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0262539802 https://www.amazon.com/dp/0262539802 Estimated July 6 next year
- musicale 6y agoIs this a full discrete logic implementation? Other Apple 1 kits I've seen have cheated on various bits such as the video/character generator and keyboard interface by using an embedded microcontroller, which seems to defeat the purpose of an Apple 1 recreation. It's not too hard to generate a simple black and white video signal, and it's an interesting bit that I would definitely want to try. The Apple 1 is unfortunately a disappointing game machine because of its serial-style terminal interface, so you can't really create an interactive display, even with block character graphics. Obviously an Apple ][ recreation would be an excellent game machine, but it's quite a bit more complicated, particularly things like video, PAL chips, and especially storage (which you'd probably want.)
- duskwuff 6y agoGiven the size of the "Keyboard", "Video", and "Hi-Res Video" chips, I'd wager a guess that they're ATmega microcontrollers with sticky labels on them. The kit looks like it's taken some other shortcuts as well. The original system used an array of DRAMs, for example, not the single SRAM in this kit (which didn't exist when the Apple I was made). The original Apple II was almost entirely discrete logic -- no PALs. It'd actually be a great target for reproduction.
- dhosek 6y agoAnd it came with a circuit diagram of the computer.
- OJFord 6y agoI'm really curious about when that changed as a norm, I assume it was gradual, but there must have been some 'turning points' (said with my apologies to mathematics). I used to be keen on '80s Pioneer stereo amplifiers, the SA-8xx range if I recall correctly, (I'm younger than them) and they all came with schematics. Nothing contemporary to me did (that I had) though.
- reaperducer 6y ago
- mdswanson 6y agoMentioned many times on Hacker News, but very relevant here: https://eater.net/ https://eater.net/. A great way to understand what's going on by building a computer from the ground up.
- BookPage 6y agoI bought Ben's kits and built the 8 bit breadboard computer. It was the most educational experience I've ever had learning computer architecture. I'd be lying if I said it wasn't a lot of work though and breadboards are fraught with issues. The difference between this and the apple-1 though is that Ben's computer is effectively a third gen computer on breadboard, whereas the apple-1 is pure fourth gen. I guess the fair comparison is ben's 6502 kit.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- pronoiac 6y agoOh! This isn't about the new Apple M1 hardware; it's about the pre-Apple II hardware.
- stevesimmons 6y agoIs there anything similar for the Apple II? I loved my Apple //e back in 1984. Played a few games. Did a ton of assembly language programming, built my own IO cards etc. The manuals, with full schematics, dissections of how the DOS worked, etc, were absolutely fascinating to me as a geeky teenage boy.
- programmer_dude 6y agoWhy are so many components mounted on a ZIF socket?
- OJFord 6y agoThat is really weird, is there any reason to use them other than repeated removal/reinsertion? (Hence found on chip programmers, component testers, etc.)
- sergpanarin 6y agoZIFs are on our test board for our breadboards kit schematics – they are used (as you have mentioned) to insert/remove chips for testing. And fast check of ROM firmware for it's updates. So we've built a test PCB board to test fast our chips and schematics.
- mulmen 6y agoThe actual kit seems to be on breadboards so maybe that's just a development thing? I'm confused though, they mention breadboards but also custom PCBs? Not sure what this kit actually is.
- kevin_thibedeau 6y agoIt's amusing that the imitation 3M sockets are so cheap that you can fill a board with them considering the real ones are $20 a pop.
- BasicObject 6y agoThis is really exciting. This gives me hope there will be kits like this to rebuild my SE.