Interesting FPGA Homebrewing project

[Oscar]

Hi,

There is a new, simple to build FPGA "Homebrewing" project out, in case you missed it:
http://searle.hostei.com/grant/Multicomp/index.html

Multicomp, it's called. Grant Searle basically created a "box of vintage parts" in FPGA and lets you mix and match parts to create a synthetic retrocomputer a la carte. For a total cost of less than $50, this opened up vintage computing on FPGAs for me. Brilliant!

Regards,

Oscar.

BTW - the writeup on my build is here: (link)

 

[cr1901]

Small world... I think the official forum thread for updates is on 6502.org.

 

[Oscar]

Thanks for that link - didn't know about it. Small world indeed, some familiar names there already

 

[Chuck(G)]

It'd be interesting to see some of the old iron done in FPGA for those who are curious. Say, an IBM 7090 or 650, UNIVAC I, ETA-10, etc.

 

[Al Kossow]

IBM 7090 or 650, UNIVAC I, ETA-10

which one isn't like the others

There is some work on 6600 and Cray-1 that I've heard of along with IBM 360/40, 1130.
The old iron running under SIMH probably has a better chance (7094), since software exists.

One of the things I've spent a lot of time at CHM doing is trying to recover the oldest software that
I can find with the hope that someone in the future will simulate or build replicas (I have my hands
full with what I do without lifting that rock).

 

[Chuck(G)]

which one isn't like the others

Well, one is colder than the others.

There's a lot of old interesting architectures that are completely unknown to younger folks. Say, the B5000 series or decimal machines (1620, 7080, 1401 or old supercomputers ) that might be fun for some to explore. I find the PC and 8080 stuff pretty boring.

 

[Dr_Acula]

Over on the N8VEM forum a few of us have built some boards. 16 i/o pins, VGA, TV, keyboard, SD card, two serial ports.

vhdl is a whole new language for most of us, but we are muddling are way through. CPM 2.2 running, and now looking at MP/M and other later versions of CP/M. All good fun!

 

[peabody1929]

Do you have anything regarding the IBM 7700? It was a 18bit, second generation machine built in 1964-65, intended for data acquisition. It was the last of IBM's second gen machines. Only 2 were manufactured; one ended up at SLAC/Stanford, the other at the University of Rochester. I was a system programmer for the UofR machine. I am particularly interested in the IBM assembler for the machine or the IBM operating system.