Maybe you read it on a game computer that you built yourself, but you probably can’t say that you built editor From scratch with your own hands and soldering. One of the DIY enthusiasts just did this in the project, which is an impressive look at how computers work and how far they have come.
First reported by Tom’s equipmentPolish YouTuber computers DIY and more (Mint in low) published a video On his channel at the beginning of this month, he shows operating home processors built with retro parts inspired by 8-bit microprocessors from the first days of PCs. Mint even clearly mentions the Zilog Z80, which was one of the most popular processors in the tardy seventies, and even became an early laptop layout in the 1980s.
The whole project took 3 months and resulted from the interest of MINT with retro computers. As he explains in a film, which was translated from Polish with AI: “It began with gathering a large number of old memory systems. I started experimenting with them and I quickly realized that you can do some really cool things of these seemingly useless really old things.”
Initially, Mint used these antiquated memory systems for plain tasks, such as engine control or featherlight dimmer. But finally he realized that by combining several memory systems, he could be able to make a fully functioning 8-bit processor.
During the half -hour film, Mint presents a long process that did it. Not only did he build the processor himself and the soldier, but even spent “hundreds of hours” to write the code for him. If you are interested in smaller details of computers, MINT video is an compelling deep diving in all components and how they interact with each other to follow orders.
The end result is “CPU Epromint”. As evidence of the concept, Mint connected it to a miniature VFD display and programmed to play matrix scenes. Of course, they come from pixel, but it still works.
As Mint put it: “It does not require the construction of a team of people or a budget worth many million dollars, but it is a fully functional processor and simple enough, I can explain how it works.”
