CPU assembly completed

CPU assembly completed

Apr

25

2015

This is what an assembled stack of seven CPU boards looks like. I was able to complete the soldering work recently, and now have a complete CPU and a bunch of peripherals on printed circuit boards. Farewell, old wire-wrapped CPU prototype! The new CPU is way more robust than the delicate wire mesh. It is ...
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Construction

Got CPU boards

Got CPU boards

Feb

22

2015

Time to break out the soldering iron again! CPU boards arrived in mail a few days back. That’s seven euro-sized boards, each one individually sealed in plastic, with green solder mask (anything else would mean extra manufacturing cost) and without silk screen layer (again, just to save a few bucks). At current prices of PCB ...
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Construction

CPU boards 2

CPU boards

Dec

6

2014

I finally managed to complete the PCB design for the CPU core. New schematics and Eagle files are available for download here. It was not an easy task and it took few months of work in short weekend bursts. The finished CPU layout consists of seven euro-boards (100x160mm), all manually routed, with 16 mils track ...
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Construction

Relocatable objects 2

Dec

16

2013

Important software update today. I have updated my compiler toolchain to support relocatable objects. Even though today’s version does not bring many improvements in code generation, I consider it very important and getting me much closer to my goal of running “real software” on BYTEC/16. Until now, I only had a retargeted LCC compiler, which ...
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Software

Function pointers in C

Oct

31

2013

Some time ago I ran a stress test of my compiler toolchain by compiling portions of Minix C library (compilation only, with no intention of running the code). This was to see if I encounter any problems. Overall I am happy with the results. I fixed several LCC machine description bugs, and I am now ...
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Software

Syncing the clocks

Syncing the clocks

Oct

14

2013

Few months ago I made what I believe was the last hardware fix in the current build. I realized only yesterday that I have not posted the revised schematics, so today’s post is to make up for it. The fix itself is a simple but important update to the clock generation circuit. In my post from ...
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Design · Design - control