The 4-Bit Nibbler CPU and Bitscope for Layer 1 Logic Analysis Fun

After a closer look at how to program the 4-Bit Nibbler CPU and how to cope with its intentional limitations it was time to go one step further and have a closer look at how the hardware works one layer further down. To see the signals and how they propagate through the system a logic … Continue reading The 4-Bit Nibbler CPU and Bitscope for Layer 1 Logic Analysis Fun

The Nibbler 4-Bit CPU Project – Learn to Love What You Don’t Have – And Work Around It

The Nibbler 4-Bit CPU board is optimized for exactly one thing: Creating a fully functional computer with a CPU split into its components with as few chips as possible to make it easy to build it and to actually understand what is going on. It does an excellent job at this and one can even … Continue reading The Nibbler 4-Bit CPU Project – Learn to Love What You Don’t Have – And Work Around It

The Nibbler 4-Bit CPU Project – Soldering Things Together

A few days ago, the printed circuit board (PCB) for my 4-bit do-it-yourself CPU project has arrived. The next step was to get the parts together. That's a bit of a tricky thing as many components, especially the 74HC181 chip that implements the Arithmetic Logic Unit (ALU), while having been quite popular in the 1970's, … Continue reading The Nibbler 4-Bit CPU Project – Soldering Things Together

The VCFB Vintage Computing Festival Berlin – 7.-8. October 2017

An event I’ve been looking forward to for a long time is this year’s Vintage Computing Festival Berlin (VCFB) which takes place in about one and a half weeks from now, Saturday and Sunday on the 7th and 8th October 2017 in the German Museum of Technology in Berlin. If you are even only remotely … Continue reading The VCFB Vintage Computing Festival Berlin – 7.-8. October 2017