8-bit breadboard computer

I haven’t posted anything in quite a while. I’ve been very busy and haven’t had much free time to tinker with things, but I have been working on a few projects. I just haven’t finished any of them.

Since my last post, I’ve gotten a new 3d printer, a cnc machine, a bunch of stuff to restore and/or fix, a few new radios to mess around with, some kits to build, etc.

I’ve got plenty to work on. I just need more free time.

One of the projects I’ve been working on is building an 8-bit computer on a breadboard based on Ben Eater’s youtube series.

I found this series a year or so ago and bought all of the parts, but never got around to it. Recently, liveoverflow began streaming his build of Ben’s computer so I thought I’d finally work on mine.

So far, I’ve built the clock module, two registers, the instruction register and the ALU.

I’ve got some troubleshooting to do on the ALU. I’ve either got some bits swapped or a short between two bits, but I should have that worked out tonight.

In the picture above, the first block on the left (the power rails) are the computer’s bus. The bottom left modules are the two registers. Above them is the clock module and the instruction register is off to the right.

Here I have added the ALU in between the two registers and connected it up. Next step is to build the ram.