BMOW (Big Mess of Wires) project at Maker Faire

Computers & Mobile
BMOW (Big Mess of Wires) project at Maker Faire
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Wired Gadget Lab has a piece, as a teaser about their attendance at Maker Faire, about Steve Chamberlin’s home-wound 8-bit, chess-playing CPU made by wire-wrapping some 50 basic logic chips. Quoting Steve on the benefits of undertaking this project:

Computers can seem like complete black boxes. We understand what they do, but not how they do it, really,” says Chamberlin. “When I was finally able to mentally connect the dots all the way from the physics of a transistor up to a functioning computer, it was an incredible thrill.

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Steve will be showing off BMOW in Expo Hall. He’s also created a beautiful coffee table book of photos documenting the build process, which he created through Shutterfly, that he’ll be showing at the Faire.

Homebrewed CPU Is a Beautiful Mess of Wires

Big Mess o’ Wires

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Gareth Branwyn is a freelance writer and the former Editorial Director of Maker Media. He is the author or editor of over a dozen books on technology, DIY, and geek culture. He is currently a contributor to Boing Boing, Wink Books, and Wink Fun. His free weekly-ish maker tips newsletter can be found at garstipsandtools.com.

View more articles by Gareth Branwyn

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