No, I'm not talking about 'making' a PC by screwing in a mobo and slotting in a GPU, but actually making a computer the way enthusiasts had to do for most of the 70s.
Searching online I can find tons of modern plans for simple Z80 computers, but I would like to use 70s era plans for this, like those that would have been published in a magazine or club newsletter. I'd also like to use as many 70s era parts and materials as possible, and I'm having a harder time figuring out what kind of keyboard and monitor would be appropriate.
>but actually making a computer the way enthusiasts had to do for most of the 70s. They where usually kits. You can still buy kits to make Z80 based computers, etc.
Most enthusiasts bought actual minicomputers, like Altair, that's why they where enthusiasts, nerds bought kits.
Christian Sanchez
you're taking retarded nostalgia to a whole new level
Ryan Murphy
>You can still buy kits to make Z80 based computers, etc.
But I'd like it to be as 70s era as possible. I know I can cannibalize a lot of electronic for era appropriate resistors, cap, ect. I'd like the plans I use to be era appropriate as well.
Juan Turner
Fuck off back to Sup Forums faggot. Actual tech geeks are talking.
That dude is really really good and fucking knows his shit.
Charles King
>nostalgia If you really think OP is some 60 year old fart, you're retarded.
Eli Flores
His dad probably molested him in the 80s while he was using one so that's why he wants to be reminded of it
Justin Stewart
Nobody was using those kit shits in the 80's anymore when a C64 costed the same much.
Tyler Roberts
That's the coolest shit ever. Really breaks down how machine works
Wyatt Ortiz
>whole pcb is just 74 logic dips wew, thats some nice home'''made''' shit you got there. it would be a shame if someone soldered a soc onto a pcb with i/o and got better functionality and performance than that
Ryan Ross
>all that empty space between ICs
Aaron Stewart
>whole pcb is just 74 logic dips It is literary TTL logic as it says there
Hunter Richardson
The whole point of it is to be a teaching tool, the more clearly things are laid out, the better
Chase Mitchell
Well if you want to have a real from the bare metal educational approach (including a simulation of a simple computer built from logic gates up) then I'd recommend to you "The Elements of Computing Systems". It teaches you how a computer works starting from the very fundamental circuitry.
If you are specifically looking for actually physically building a computer then you're gonna be in bad shape, because even those "early 70s" systems you are referencing were basically just kits that you assembled in the same way one would assemble a puzzle. The "building" process didn't actually entail any indepth knowledge of what happens inside the individual components
Benjamin James
The Z80 IS from the '70s, otherwise you can just try to adapt a design for the 8080 or something similar, you can also look into weirdo shit like the SBC6120. The purpose isn't just to build a fucking facebook/games machine you retarded mouthbreather, fuck off back to your GPU blogs.
Isaac Barnes
>The Z80 IS from the '70s, otherwise you can just try to adapt a design for the 8080 or something similar, you can also look into weirdo shit like the SBC6120.
I know that. I want circa-70s schematics, not modern ones.
Gavin Turner
>But I'd like it to be as 70s era as possible. I know I can cannibalize a lot of electronic for era appropriate resistors, cap, ect. I'd like the plans I use to be era appropriate as well.
I'm not entirely sure what you're looking for, but if you think you can build a computer all the way from individual transistors you buy at radioshack then you're gonna be in bed shape. Even the most simple weak system resembling what we would call in conventional language modern computer would need thousands upon thousands of transistors. If I'm not mistaken there is a man who actually did that and the thing ended up taking an entire aula.
Eli Robinson
You can search around bitsavers or something for schematics and technical information on some 8080/Z80 systems then, maybe, but honestly most of the more modern designs probably aren't as inauthentic as you might think they are.
Jayden Jackson
some dumbfuck mod on stack exchange spent 5 paragraphs claiming this was impossible and locking the thread because "how to build a circuit board" was "not a legitimate question" and "the breadboard would fall apart"
Chase Ward
Had this sitting on my hard drive for a while, but haven't had the time to actually look through it. I quickly skimmed through it just now though, its early 80's but seems close to what you are looking for in the sense that its no kits, just components on perf board.
Maybe you can find something even closer to what you are looking for on libgen.
Jackson King
>modern computer would need thousands upon thousands of transistors at this point printing your own layered chip from silicon and copper would be the proper path to take, would it not?
Kevin Powell
Cool stuff
I've built small CPUs and parts of it in logic simulators, but someday I just want to get some 7400 logic ICs and actually build it
m68k and Z80 are also on my long-term TODO list
Parker Morris
No, I mean circa 1970s diy computer schematics, for use with off the shelf cpus like the Z80.
>just components on perf board.
Thanks for getting what I'm looking for
Charles Williams
Nah, the "proper" path is 7400 series logic, you can build a usable system that fits in a desktop form factor if you aren't retarded about it.
Logan Watson
>not printing 64 bit chips in x86_64 instructions.
Lucas Robinson
I think the problem here (and the reason why nobody in this thread understands what you're trying to do) is that you have a false idea of what people back then were doing, and overestimate the amount of "component bootstrapping" that those so-called DIY computer building kits entailed.
There is nothing magic about the 1970s instructions compared to the instructions of analogous teaching projects based on them today
Why the fuck would you want that shit. Just buy an fpga and program your own soc if you have to. Then port binutils and try to port gcc to it. After 2 years of wasting your time, just buy a ready made sbc and call it a day
Jordan King
If only. Yeah, pretty much this. Not that completely homebrewing a system isn't cool or anything, but later designs are going to basically employ the same exact concepts and will probably even be closer to what you're looking for, since they'll be less complex and full of unnecessary features than, say, a typical S-100 kit system.
Eli Wood
I'm being serious. I want to learn to etch my own 64 bit chips. photo tech isn't that scary to me.
Anthony Long
It's about the journey, not the destination. OP obviously isn't looking for some quick and boring solution to some software problem he's having, he's looking just to build something for the fuck of it and maybe learn more about something that interests him in the process.
Angel Martinez
Semi-related but id like to build a processor, maybe with 4bit architecture, on an FPGA board. Any suggestions on where I would start?
Anthony Jackson
Choose an architecture (Harvard or Von Neumann) Choose an ISA Draw out the datapath for a single instruction Shove muxes in until your datapath supports all instructions in your ISA (don't forget a PC) Create control logic for instruction decoding and mux control
With that you'll have a basic single cycle cpu. From there you can make your processor not crappy by adding things like pipelining, caches, multicores, and out of order execution as you learn about processor design.
> actually making a computer the way enthusiasts had to do for most of the 70s. No, I'm not talking about 'making' a PC by soldering a few microcontrollers together and slotting in a PSU, but actually building all of logic gates from scratch the way Turing had to do for most of the 40s.
If you're not building your entire computer from just NAND gates, you're nothing but a poser.
Alexander Clark
im gonna print out stencils I draw and use photolithography to build up my computer layer by layer.
Jacob Thomas
Why not just use an FPGA and write your architecture in VHDL? It would be just as challenging but you could design something more substantive than what you could fit on a few breadboards.
Easton Richardson
Not a computer necessarily, but check out a youtuber called "Ben Eater" he made a shit ton of instruction videos on his breadboard computer
Elijah Reyes
3D printer vs Wood carving
Different experiences. Yes, the 3D printer has higher resolution and can do all sorts of materials, but it might not be as satisfying.
Ryan Brown
Can it be any more obvious that you're udneraged?
Bentley Campbell
These machines were, by and large, kits available from specific vendors. The Altair 8800, the IMSAI 8080, and any of the bundles from Heathkit come immediately to mind, although others existed. These kits are essentially non-existent nowadays, and the finished computers themselves tend to fetch prices in the thousands when they're actually for sale. This is probably not what you're looking to get into, at least from a financial perspective.
If you're talking about actual chip fabrication and processor design, that's a whole other matter.
Jose Ross
>but later designs are going to basically employ the same exact concepts and will probably even be closer to what you're looking for, since they'll be less complex and full of unnecessary features than, say, a typical S-100 kit system.
I am aware of this, but I would rather do something that is straight from 1970s schematics.
>These kits are essentially non-existent nowadays, and the finished computers themselves tend to fetch prices in the thousands when they're actually for sale. This is probably not what you're looking to get into, at least from a financial perspective.
Yeah, which is why I want a schematic for a completely diy similar class computer
Easton Wilson
I tried this!! In fact, I gave up on the project for now just yesterday. Pic related, what I've done so far I was building a z80 computer that could run a modified version of Unix (fuzix) but I didn't want to order PCBs, I wanted to wire everything by hand on a prototyping board. It turns out that a ton of 10mhz signals running around on the board will cause signal degradation and the CPU will not be stable. :/ Oh, and btw a FUCKING AWESOME resource is this lateblt.tripod.com/z80proj1.htm and if you are going after a 6502 computer lateblt.tripod.com/6502prj1.htm . if you have any questions btw ask me.i have been researching about that for a long time
Jason Moore
>Yeah, which is why I want a schematic for a completely diy similar class computer Oh, well a Google search would keep you busy for weeks then. There's so much z80 and 6502 stuff out there it's almost funny. Pick a processor and start buying parts.
Parker Murphy
Should I, Sup Forums? I've always wanted to build my own discrete CPU
Elijah King
i believe you will get board before finishing the project
Charles Baker
I sure hope so, I don't want to wire-wrap the whole thing
Bentley Ross
so why bother starting if you are not gonna finish
Xavier Sanchez
OF COURSE do it user, for science
Zachary Thomas
I don't give up easily Seems pretty relaxing and meditational once you have the same logic board you have to build many times
Do I get the official 'Absolute Madman' title if I finish it?
not really, it's more of a fucked up hybrid between the 8080 and z80 design-wise that isn't really compatible with either, the package as a whole is pretty much irrelevant and not at all what OP is looking for
>hurr look at those scrubs screwing together parts they didn't make and don't understand >i'mma solder together parts i didn't make and don't understand! transistor logic or back to with you
Cameron Sanders
>I wanna do deep UV lithography at home
I was gonna deride you at firsr, but man having a clean room at home would be neat, if grossly expensive.
Nathaniel Morgan
no appreciation.
Nolan Ward
t. insecure gamertard
James Hill
You probably need a ground plane if you gonna go that fast.
Asher Morris
>no block copy >no extra register banks >missing a shitton of very useful instructions
Colton Baker
Nice to see the rare autist posting. 95% of the posts here are retarded normies bumping advertising threads.
Kayden Bell
>one of these wires come out >spend 2 hours trying to figure out where it goes I hate bread boards.
Aiden Long
the nand2tetris is a good course. after that make a computer using an fpga
Eli Davis
>be in college, 2006 >computer engineer classes >take class where we wire up an 8086 >set it up to respond to a hyper terminal interface >get it to work once after hours of debugging >only 1 other lab team made it work more than once >hook up a logic analyzer to the memory pins and prove it would work if the modem chip wasn't junk >get the A
Those hyper terminal chips would fry at even the slightest unnoticeable spark. OP, be sure you're working a proper environment. Grounding, humidity, temperature, etc. That Era of chips are delicate.
Brody Perry
You could probably design a pcb with designspark and manufacture them for a few dollars. Much cheaper nowadays
Colton Cook
this subreddit is for smartphones and consumer electronics only. Sorry!
