SparkFun Forums

[antibyte]

Hi Everyone,
Well for a while now I have been interested in building my own computer, but when I say build my own computer I do not simply mean buying a motherboard and case etc..
I wish to build it from scratch homebrew style, and I am wondering if this is possible with an Adruino and other components.
If so could you link me to a similar topic or provide me with the necessary information...

[waltr]

It will not be anywhere like a modern PC or MAC but more like the old 8bit computers from the late '70s and early '80s.

Someone here did do a replica of one of these old computes with a modern 8 bit processor. So some searching of the forums should find the thread.

I'm trying to think of some search terms for you. Try:

TRS-80
S100
Mark-8 Altair
Apple
Computer history

These should give you an idea of what can be done with an 8 bit processor.

Good luck and have fun

[antibyte]

Sadly after searching the terms you gave me and a couple of others I could think of nothing came up....thanks for the help anyway..

[skimask]

Sadly after searching the terms you gave me and a couple of others I could think of nothing came up....thanks for the help anyway..

Huh?
I get literally millions of hits from each of those 'terms'.
What you are proposing can be easily done (in my mind), even on something as small as an 8 pin PIC. Just depends on what features you want to add and how powerful you may or may not want it to be.
What are you looking for? Some ideas for you to give you an idea of which direction to go along the way of building your own computer? Or a website that basically hands you a pdf with a schematic and a zip file full of premade code so you can piece it together and say that you built it?

[dattaway]

What kind of graphics would you like? A text terminal with a debugger interface? If you want a GUI, there are many classic fine video chips out there if you don't mind font tables, scrolling, and drawing. The software takes about a year to build from scratch, but is great fun.

[skimask]

I don't know about a year to build it all...
There are libraries out there for USB, PS/2, LCDs, SD cards, ATA hard drives (including CF cards), sound, etc. Almost everything needed for interfacing to whatever a person can think of.
VGA style graphics are a quite a bit more advanced but could still be done at the hobbyist level assuming the O/P wants to do the research. Short of VGA graphics, something like a MAX7456 could be used for simple NTSC video output to a portable DVD style player LCD input.
About the only PITA I can think of would be the parser...and even then, there are plenty of those out there, again, if the O/P wants to do the research.

[saramakos]

Good to see that I am not the only one thinking of this sort of thing!
I was thinking using the ATMega chips alone, but I can imagine something like an Arduino with a Tellymate shield and a micro SD shield could combine to make a basic computer...