I find this somewhat hard to believe myself, but the first prototype of the Übersquirrel is up and running. The wires are a mess, it's still missing a bunch of parts, but OMG I have actually built a working computer!
As it stands, it's a WDC65c02 with 1.8 MHz, 32 kb RAM, 8 kb ROM (soon to be expanded to 16 kb), and a MC6850 for the serial port running at 28.800 baud (thanks, Mario!). I'll be adding the second ROM block and a VIA 65c22, do some more work on the OS, and then figure out how to wire wrap the final version.
However, first and foremost: Thanks so much to everybody here in the forum who has been such great help the last few months and made this moment possible. I couldn't have done it without you guys. You're a great group of people.
(Oh, and the cat -- black blob on the right -- helped, too, I guess, though my heart stopped briefly yesterday when she almost walked over the breadboard.)
And now I really, really have to take my very big smile to bed.
OMG it's alive!
- BigDumbDinosaur
- Posts: 9425
- Joined: 28 May 2009
- Location: Midwestern USA (JB Pritzker’s dystopia)
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Re: OMG it's alive!
scotws wrote:
I find this somewhat hard to believe myself, but the first prototype of the Übersquirrel is up and running. The wires are a mess, it's still missing a bunch of parts, but OMG I have actually built a working computer!
Quote:
(Oh, and the cat -- black blob on the right -- helped, too, I guess, though my heart stopped briefly yesterday when she almost walked over the breadboard.)
x86? We ain't got no x86. We don't NEED no stinking x86!
Re: OMG it's alive!
Yeah, it's nearly impossible to describe the feeling if you turn it on and it works. Only a few characters in a terminal window generated by a bunch of wires making the world stop for a moment.
Congratulations for getting the Übersquirrel to life.
Mario.
Congratulations for getting the Übersquirrel to life.
Mario.
How should I know what I think, until I hear what I've said.
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ElEctric_EyE
- Posts: 3260
- Joined: 02 Mar 2009
- Location: OH, USA
Re: OMG it's alive!
Congratulations! The first time is always special.
Good luck with the next chapter of WW. My recommendation is to leave what you have now alone, do not touch it! This way you'll have a reference to work from for the next stage.
Good luck with the next chapter of WW. My recommendation is to leave what you have now alone, do not touch it! This way you'll have a reference to work from for the next stage.
Re: OMG it's alive!
Congratulations scotws!
I had the same feeling recently.
I can’t take it apart (yet)...
I had the same feeling recently.
I can’t take it apart (yet)...
Marco
Re: OMG it's alive!
Way to go, scotws. Congratulations...
Re: OMG it's alive!
Thanks everybody. EE, I was actually clever enough to buy two of everything, so I can build the finished version in parallel. Really helps with the software, I'm getting to the limits of what I can do with the emulator (WAI for for the main routine will probably be the last straw). This is why the interrupt system will go in last. At least that's the idea.