Building a simple 8-bit computer is a great way to understand computing fundamentals, but there’s only so much you can learn by building a system around an existing processor. If you want to learn more, you’ll have to go further and build the CPU yourself, as [MINT] demonstrated with his EPROMINT project (video in Polish, but with English subtitles).
The CPU began when [MINT] began experimenting with uses for his collection of old memory chips, and quickly realized that they could do quite a bit more than store data. After building a development board for single-chip based programmable logic, he decided to build a full CPU out of (E)EPROMs. The resulting circuit spans four large pieces of perfboard, weighs in at over half a kilogram, and took several weeks of soldering to create. Continue reading “Designing A CPU With Only Memory Chips”