On 5/9/2016 10:37 PM, Orchid Win7 v1 wrote:
> On 09/05/2016 01:13 PM, Stephen wrote:
>> On 5/9/2016 11:20 AM, Orchid Win7 v1 wrote:
>>> Tangentially:
>>>
>>> https://hackaday.com/2016/04/30/megaprocessor-is-a-macro-microprocessor/
>>
>> There are some strange people in the world. I've read about a couple of
>> projects like that.
>
> Personally, I say well played to the guy. It must have cost him a damned
> *fortune* to do all this!
>

So do I



> I see so many projects that are all like "an entire computer built using
> only 7400s"... and then you realise they actually meant "ICs in the 74xx
> product catalog", not just the 7400 itself. So that means entire
> flip-flops, adders, counters, encoders, etc in a single chip, not the
> individual logic gates you were expecting. And then you find out it uses
> off the shelf 64KB RAM chips. And then the guy added a "graphics card"
> that's actually a Raspberry Pi. So... an entire computer with 2,000,000x
> the processing power of the "computer" you're building? :-P And at this
> point, all kind of credibility is kinda lost.
>

For people of a certain age, 7400s does mean "ICs in the 74xx product 
catalogue". For the rest of it I see what you are getting at.
But let me put an alternative view.
They are not obsessives like the guy above but hobbyists. Doing a little 
bit is much better than doing nothing but thinking about it. Credit to 
them as well.



> At least *this* project appears to be doing stuff for real. And he's
> obviously given a lot of thought to making it *visual* what's going on,
> which is nice. Aesthetics are often forgotten on hard-core electronics
> projects like this.
>

There was a fashion for computers to show the contents of their 
registers in a matrix. {Some men believed that you could see the 
workings of the computer mind. </Bad Jeremy Clarkson voice }
Another nice detail.


Then again I wouldn't want to be married to him, unless...
I once knew a guy, offshore. Who built a 1:10 scale model of the Flying 
Scotsman. Hand turned/formed/riveted down to making the rivets and 
threaded screws.
Nice man but don't ask him to a party. :)


>
> I've never built any circuit that uses more than about 3 LEDs. Which
> means the power used by the LEDs is negligible. I guess I failed to
> anticipate how things stop being negligible when you have a metric tonne
> of them! :-P

Ah! the definition of a scientist. :-P

Electronics was my hobby as well as my job. And most companies 
encouraged us to do home projects. At least 30% of a project could be 
counted on as tinsmithing. (And hoping your power supply was up to the 
job after all those modifications.)


-- 

Regards
     Stephen

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