Category Archives: Drexel

Topics related to my work and study at Drexel University

9 MHz!

More progress on the Z80 computer: * The computer core (processor, memory, etc) was transferred piece by piece from the solderless breadboard to a wire-wrapped version.* Termination of the data and address busses was added (1K resistors to ground)* A … Continue reading

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It works!

After a bit of debugging (some PIC code corrections, some VB code corrections, and finally tracking down a missing direction-pin wire), the Z80 computer is executing code! I wrote a short test program to compute Fibonacci numbers, and it ran … Continue reading

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Plus ça change…

…plus ça ne change pas. Or so they say, anyway — but the design of this computer has certainly changed. The changes are for the better, though: the core (which will be constructed by the students) has been greatly simplified, … Continue reading

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I’m still here…

…I’ve just been busy working on some really cool paleotechnology projects. Dr. Rosen came across an article about a microprocessor course built around students creating their own 8086-based computer. He asked me what I thought about it — and my … Continue reading

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