The Gigatron TTL Computer without a Microprocessor

[Homer J Simpson]

[nctnico]

He is soldering the pins one by one? Get a big tip and use a drag soldering technique. Much faster and no chance you forget a pin.

[georges80]

I just don't get the fascination with vintage/retro/[...] computers. Yes, I hand built from scratch of my own design an 8080A based machine back in the late 70's. Wouldn't bother doing it today!

Way too many new and interesting things to build versus old dinosaur stuff. I would have to dig very deep to find a DIP IC component in my stash of parts and if I did, it would end up in the bin soon after.

Now, where did I leave my horse parked

cheers,
george.

[james_s]

I love the vintage/retro stuff, I wouldn't want to give up my modern PC but it's so boring. The old stuff is simple enough that you can reasonably understand it at a very low level, and build something like this from scratch. Good luck designing and building your own modern PC motherboard by hand.

[NiHaoMike]

I just don't get the fascination with vintage/retro/[...] computers. Yes, I hand built from scratch of my own design an 8080A based machine back in the late 70's. Wouldn't bother doing it today!

Way too many new and interesting things to build versus old dinosaur stuff. I would have to dig very deep to find a DIP IC component in my stash of parts and if I did, it would end up in the bin soon after.

Retro games can be fun. MsMadLemon hosts a TV show that is almost completely about retro games and retro electronics.

The retro computing project I want to try if I ever get around to it is implementing Chip's Challenge on a FPGA without resorting to any processors, just state machines. There's still a community around that "simple" 2D game and I wonder how fast a FPGA implementation could be, for automated solution checking and optimization.

[Ampera]

I haven't soldered together a computer yet (although I am eyeing the MTM Scientific 5150 motherboard kit, as soon as I both have the dough, and maybe if I can source some good 5.25 inch drives, and a good  case etc.), but I am I legacy hardware enthusiast, so I can say why I like it.

Being 16, I haven't been able to experience enthusiast computing up until rather recently, with my first machine that I built myself being an FM1 AM2 llano-based machine. Building legacy machines like my Socket 3 486 machine, my Pentium Pro, and others, lets me experience a period in computing that I wasn't around for, similar to how Techmoan likes to mess around with older Hi-Fi gear that he wasn't around to see either.

It also lets me engage in my enthusiast nature. Since all the parts are so relatively cheap, I can afford to make decked out configurations that would make a PC enthusiast's brown khakis turn into white slacks. My Pentium Pro machine, which I place at a 1996 vintage, has a Voodoo 1, ATI Mach64/GX 2MB, SB32 CT:4670, a whole Ultra160 SCSI subsystem utilizing a 147GB 15,000 RPM SCA-80 Ultra320 hard drive (for speeds to surpass the traditional ATA-33). Don't forget the 96MB (Expandable in the future to 256 if I want to drop cash on it) of 72-pin EDO DRAM. This is a configuration I have calculated to be in parity price of thousands upon thousands of dollars, of which I only paid 200-300 of.

It's also just a hobby. I do locksmithing, cooking, (eating), reading/learning, programming, political debate, biking, and more. I enjoy just tinkering with these old machines and keeping a piece of history from the scrapyards. The games are also quite nice to be played on original hardware.

[NiHaoMike]

Being 16, I haven't been able to experience enthusiast computing up until rather recently, with my first machine that I built myself being an FM1 AM2 llano-based machine. Building legacy machines like my Socket 3 486 machine, my Pentium Pro, and others, lets me experience a period in computing that I wasn't around for, similar to how Techmoan likes to mess around with older Hi-Fi gear that he wasn't around to see either.

Rinoa Super-Genius is also really into old stuff like antique film cameras. (She's seemingly out to break stereotypes about young women but that's a discussion for another time...) There's some charm to older technology that's easier to understand how it works just by looking at it.

I used to have a Pentium Pro machine to learn Linux on. That was when the original Athlon was the fastest consumer CPU available and Linux wasn't quite ready for the average user.

[JoeN]

Anyone see where the schematic is for this?  That would be the interesting part.  They say this is open source but I can't find a schematic, just binaries for their system at github.

https://hackaday.io/project/20781-gigatron-ttl-microcomputer
https://github.com/kervinck/gigatron-rom 

[ktulu]

Anyone see where the schematic is for this?

Were you able to find the schematic?

[TK]

I just don't get the fascination with vintage/retro/[...] computers.

One reason can be that hobbyists probably used one of these 8-bit computers, but did not have the resources (money, time, knowledge) at that time to play and experiment with them, and now they have time, knowledge and money (and some of the components and vintage computers are dirty cheap).

[rstofer]

I like retro projects for the very reason that I can wrap my arms around all of it, hardware and code.  A Z80 running CP/M is one of my favorites

https://rc2014.co.uk/

A lot of soldering going on with that project.  I have two, one with just Basic, the other with CP/M.  I have a couple of other projects with CP/M and one of them  runs on a 50 MHz Z80.  It just screams!  There was a time when a full blown macro assemble would run on a 64k machine (or smaller).

My first machine back in '70 was an IBM 1130.  I couldn't necessarily get my arms around the system but I gave it a good try.  Ultimately, I built an FPGA version that runs all of the IBM software.  I still use it for the more interesting Fortran projects, particularly if they require a plotter.

I still have my Altair 8800 and a CompuPro Z80 machine.  The CompuPro runs with dual floppies and one day I'll resurrect the Altair and my home built floppy controller.  Those were the days!

The appliances we have today aren't really all that interesting at a detail level.  They're fast, they do things we couldn't even imagine back in the '70s but they are fundamentally boring.

[edavid]

Anyone see where the schematic is for this?  That would be the interesting part.  They say this is open source but I can't find a schematic, just binaries for their system at github.

https://hackaday.io/project/20781-gigatron-ttl-microcomputer
https://github.com/kervinck/gigatron-rom

Not available yet... one of the Gigatron people replied in the other thread:

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/blog/eevblog-1080-gigatron-ttl-risc-kit-computer-review/msg1514317/#msg1514317

[DIPLover]

The “Gigatron TTL Microcomputer”...

There’s not a single TTL chip and it’s not a micro, since it doesn’t use a microprocessor. 

Should have been called the “Gigatron (very small) CMOS minicomputer”

Actually watched Dave’s build yesterday and it was very relaxing.

[Homer J Simpson]