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Showing posts from May, 2020

8-bit CPU: Playing with 7-segment displays

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I'm playing around with electronics from time to time, so I already had some parts and tools that might be useful for this project.

8-bit CPU: Intro

The combination of COVID-19 lockdowns and quite unpleasant weather has forced me to spend much more time indoors and online. So, I stumbled on Ben Eater's web site . He builds various interesting things on breadboards , shoots videos of the process and is very good at explaining what he does. I've always wanted to know how a CPU works. I have pretty good idea how higher-level programming languages translates to machine code. Also I knew about logic gates, and that you can combine them together into higher level constructs as latches, adders, counters and whatnot. But it still remained mystery to me how all that works together. After watching the series about building an 8-bit computer , it became much clearer to me. But also I was hooked. Literally couldn't sleep for 2 nights straight, head full of ideas of modifications and experiments. But first I need to build one. I could have ordered a kit , but I'm feeling more like trying to do things on my own, using Ben...