Building an 8-Bit Computer From Scratch

Kyle Hovey is building his own 8-bit Transistor-Tansistor Logic (TTL) computer from scratch.

I set out to learn as much as I could about how to build an 8-bit computer and soon found that looking back to the invention of the computer was the way to go. I emailed the creator of the Magic-1 computer to get some advice on where to start. He pointed me to a textbook from the late ’70s: Digital Computer Electronics by Albert Malvino. Without that book this entire project would not have been possible. If you are looking to build your own 8-bit computer I highly recommend purchasing this book. It starts at the bare logic level and moves on up to registers, then counters, then the actual structure and operation of a simple-as-possible computer. My computer that I’m building right now is based on the SAP-1 architecture with some modifications that add needed functionality.

Sounds like he wants to build a steampunky case with Numitron tubes for the display. Check out Kyle’s blog 8bitspaghetti to follow along with his project.

10 Responses to Building an 8-Bit Computer From Scratch

drwho8 (@drwho8) on April 30th, 2012 at 9:17 am said:

Wow. Sounds impressive. I’ve exchanged some witty and wonderful even messages will the gentleman behind the Magic-1 design. I do agree that is the perfect choice for anyone wishing to start off like that. However his site references two excellent Byte Magazine articles that document one individuals efforts.

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JonathanG on April 30th, 2012 at 9:31 am said:

I always liked Caxton Foster’s Computer Architecture for how it starts from gates and winds up with a working computer. It’s rather older than this other book. I’ll have to keep an eye out for it.

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Fredicvs Maximvs on April 30th, 2012 at 9:37 am said:

That picture is giving me waking nightmares. Trying to find the one loose wire that’s causing things to not work quite right sounds… excruciating…

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- Kyle Hovey on April 30th, 2012 at 9:00 pm said:
  
  It has happened a few times. When I made the ALU (this was the first part that I worked on) it had erroneous output due to some bits that got mixed up somewhere along the line. It took me a few hours but I finally got all of the bits in line.
  
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arture (@altazor08) on April 30th, 2012 at 9:57 am said:

once i biult a computer based on the Zilog’s Z80 processor

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chiefjoe on April 30th, 2012 at 10:25 am said:

That’s just pornographic

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and-E on May 1st, 2012 at 5:42 am said:

its insane what you can accomplish when you get a round tuit

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MikeW on May 2nd, 2012 at 3:14 pm said:

Reminds me of my high school project where we used wire wrapping to build a I think 8 86 computer. We used LEDs for output and hex to program it. With two people per computer some looked very much like the pic.

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Max Eliaser on May 4th, 2012 at 2:54 pm said:

I recommend The Elements of Computing Systems. It’s similar to how you describe the ’70s book, and it’s available free online.
http://www1.idc.ac.il/tecs/plan.html

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