from Hacker News

Megaprocessor – A micro-processor built large (2016)

by amadeuspzs on 11/18/21, 11:14 AM with 92 comments

  • by osamagirl69 on 11/18/21, 4:14 PM

    The mega processor is one of my all-time favorite computers, along with the Magic-1 https://homebrewcpu.com/

    The megaprocessor is just absolutely wonderful in how it bridges from 'here is a transistor, it lights an LED' to 'here is a computer, it plays tetris'. I always struggled to unwind the layers of abstraction in a modern computer from atoms in the CPU to running python, but being able to just look at a bunch of literal transistors (with LEDs on each gate!) wired up playing tetris shows how a computer really works in such a profound and awe inspiring fashion.

    Magic-1 is sort of the next level higher complexity, where it is made out of very simple TTL (most complicated chip function is the ALU--a circuit I had to build as an EE undergrad out of or- and and- gates) and it hosts a webpage. It currently seems to be down, but you can see it on the wayback machine https://web.archive.org/web/20210815180101/http://www.magic-...

    I will never forget when I came across that site and realized that I was interacting with a wirewrapped pile of ram and nor gates over the internet. There was even a time when you could telnet in and play some retro text-based adventure games, To this day, the only time I have played Adventure was on Magic-1.

  • by temeritatis on 11/18/21, 2:08 PM

    I often wondered i could build some sort of general computing machine if we were pushed back to the dark ages or something. I guess you have to define exactly at what level of technological achievements we were pushed back to. But with the knowledge we have today, and without ICs (or advanced manufacturing facilities) and only "simple electronics" (whatever that would be) if this would be possible. Fun stuff to think about!

  • by tyingq on 11/18/21, 2:12 PM

    In the same space of using discrete components instead of ICs , the Monster6502: https://monster6502.com/

    Note: Well, there are some quad transistor array chips, but that seems still in the same spirit.

  • by dTal on 11/18/21, 1:58 PM

    Missed opportunity to call it a "macroprocessor".

  • by zanethomas on 11/18/21, 5:33 PM

    I think the minicomputers of the 70s well-represent the halfway point between there and what we have today.

    At Basic Four Corporation I worked on systems built from 8"x11" circuit boards. A CPU might consist of two such cards joined on the front by a couple flat 50-pin cables and to the other components by a backplane.

    Disk Controller: 1 board Terminal controller: 1 board etc

    https://www.ricomputermuseum.org/collections-gallery/equipme...

    Would be interesting to see some enterprising soul recreate a modern computer in such a form factor.

  • by ryanmercer on 11/18/21, 2:19 PM

    That is fantastically impressive and reminds me of something Sam Altman said once

    "Alan Kay gave me an Alto. That’s not the very last computer that I think is within my capability to understand everything that’s happening in there, but it’s getting near the end." https://mastersofscale.com/sam-altman-why-customer-love-is-a...

    This is a visual representation of about what I understand about a processor and still outside of what I could actually make without a lot of reference material.

  • by diordiderot on 11/18/21, 3:40 PM

    This is currently sitting in the computing history museum in Cambridge. 10 pounds entry. They have loads of old computers and consoles

  • by jdkee on 11/18/21, 5:28 PM

    MOnSter 6502 for the curious.

    https://monster6502.com/

  • by Milner08 on 11/18/21, 3:15 PM

    Tom Scott has done videos where this has been either used directly as part of the video or has been in the background.

    For example - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5JC9Ve1sfI - It certainly makes for a cool background.

  • by asdf_snar on 11/19/21, 9:03 AM

    The quality of not only the product, but the accompanying explanations is outstanding. I think it's a work of art, because not only is it visually impactful (especially at 1Hz, as in the demu), it also uses the medium to convey an idea that would be difficult to convey in any other way.

    I'm interested in making (stochastic) algorithms fast, which always seems to eventually lead back to looking at code in compiler explorer. The extent of my knowledge there is basically "short assembly good, long assembly bad". But I've always lacked some "tactile" feeling (for lack of a better phrase) for what a register like "eax" or "rax" is. I hope that learning more about the megaprocessor might help get a glimpse of this.

  • by alberto_ol on 11/18/21, 2:40 PM

    Previous submission, 88 comments

    https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12317217

  • by ozarkerD on 11/18/21, 1:52 PM

    This is AWESOME

  • by marcodiego on 11/18/21, 2:09 PM

    If the ISA is sufficiently efficient, 8kHz is fast enough to run interpreters. An 8kHz can be useful as a calculator, running thing similar to FORTRAN and, if is has suitable I/O, maybe run a BASIC or CHIP-8 interpreter.

  • by areactnativedev on 11/19/21, 8:14 PM

    This is so good. I've just watched his 8 videos explaining from transistors to logic and memory. Wonder why he unfortunately stopped at SS8 : Time and Memory now...

  • by trasz on 11/18/21, 2:12 PM

    That giant slider pot to adjust clock speed is awesome.

  • by qwerty456127 on 11/18/21, 9:56 PM

    Can it run Doom? Or NetBSD? or whatever people would normally run on a PC?

  • by cushychicken on 11/18/21, 1:53 PM

    Wait - this thing runs Windows?! I figured it ran some kind of bytecode or toy OS. That's very neat that it runs a commercial operating system.

    I'd seen this post before but I'd never noticed the monitor with the Windows login screen.

  • by FpUser on 11/18/21, 4:47 PM

    Curious what factors limit clock to 8kHz.

  • by mrlonglong on 11/18/21, 11:19 PM

    I'm astonished it's running Windows !

  • by dennis714 on 11/26/21, 2:31 PM