Things are continuing apace with the Zolatron 64 6502 homebrew computer. In fact, progress has been so rapid that I haven’t really had much time to talk about it. So here’s a quick refresher – and details of the new memory expansion board. Serial killer The 6551 ACIA serial board is dead. Well, it’s not dead, but I’ve stopped using… Read more »
Although it is possibly the slowest computer development programme in history, my Zolatron 64 6502-based homebrew design has made some progress. And this is largely due to the fine folks over at the 6502.org forum. Specifically, I have made changes to how I’m mapping the 64KB address space and the decoding I’m using to do that. I’ve been following along… Read more »
First steps The case – Corsair Carbide SPEC-06 PSU – EVGA 1000GQ Gold The motherboard – Asus Prime X470-Pro RAM – Corsair Vengeance RGB GPU – PNY GeForce GTX 1660 Ti Putting it all together Wrapping up This should be quick. The Asus Prime X470-Pro motherboard I’d settled on needs DDR4 RAM. The board supports 3600MHz memory. I’ve heard good… Read more »
In my earlier post on address decoding logic, I mapped out a fairly simple way of dividing up the 64k address space for my 6502-based retro computer. But maybe it was too simple. There is one slight complication – easily fixed, but which will require the introduction of another chip. And the reason for this is something lacking in memory…. Read more »
A while back I wrote (here and here) about how I’d bought some old Russian memory. It’s a single memory plane from a Saratov-2 (Саратов-2), a Soviet-era Russian clone of the PDP-8 built in the 1960s. Well, I’ve finally given it the home it deserves. I’ve mounted the memory inside a deep frame and put a ribbon of LEDs around the… Read more »
The Russian core memory I bought on eBay has arrived and I have to say it’s a thing of beauty. In fact, it’s such a fascinating object that the More Significant Other was moved to admit that she’d like it to live, suitably framed, in the living room. There is something strangely hand-crafted about this piece of modern technology. I… Read more »
I’m currently reading a fascinating and hugely entertaining book about human memory. The Memory Illusion by Dr Julia Shaw is about the many ways in which our memories are unreliable. To quote the blurb, Shaw is “one of only a handful of experts in the world who conduct research on complex memory errors related to emotional personal events – so-called… Read more »
There are some things that are hard to get your head around unless you can actually see them. Being a computer history fan I’ve often read of core memory but never quite got to grips with how it works. So one day recently I just thought, ‘the hell with it – I’ll go on eBay and buy some’. Which I… Read more »