Circuit design?
Any good resources on the matter of circuit design? Namely optimization. After seeing the video of the guy who implemented a 16 bit ALU in minecraft I decided to take on the challenge my self. If I can get it done in 16 bit I'll expand to 32 bit, or I will attempt to make a CPU in minecraft. If That is successful I will write a simple program and end there.
Anywho, short story long, resources on circuit optimization?
Also I'm aware of the futility of optimizing a circuit that is being built in a videogame which is being run on a virtual machine
Anywho, short story long, resources on circuit optimization?
Also I'm aware of the futility of optimizing a circuit that is being built in a videogame which is being run on a virtual machine
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You could just go get some transistors and other necessary components and build one yourself =] An awesome guy I know had some interesting projects
like (horrifically old computers, with 8 switches on the front, used to create everything from the ground up... hundreds of pages of bytes to input to add two numbers, miss one, start over, longest run on sentence in history, don't you think?)
If you really want to have some fun, grab yourself some transistors, you'll probably want some mosfets or the like to handle the power necessary, and design an (extremely) simple autofire mechanism, then install it in remote controls. You can also make extremely simple memory storage mechanisms.
Here's a picture illustrating what I'm talking about.
http://i.imgur.com/gJpiE.png
(shown with an electromagnet, but translates easily into a transistor)
like (horrifically old computers, with 8 switches on the front, used to create everything from the ground up... hundreds of pages of bytes to input to add two numbers, miss one, start over, longest run on sentence in history, don't you think?)
If you really want to have some fun, grab yourself some transistors, you'll probably want some mosfets or the like to handle the power necessary, and design an (extremely) simple autofire mechanism, then install it in remote controls. You can also make extremely simple memory storage mechanisms.
Here's a picture illustrating what I'm talking about.
http://i.imgur.com/gJpiE.png
(shown with an electromagnet, but translates easily into a transistor)
Sounds fun but I'd rather do it through simulation first :O, I'll get into actually building this stuff later if I'm still interested in that level of hardware development :P
Not really, but that helps with designing the circuits before implementing them, and it will save me tons of paper.
EDIT: who knew trying to implement an execution stack with nothing but RS Nor Latches would be so difficult :O
EDIT: who knew trying to implement an execution stack with nothing but RS Nor Latches would be so difficult :O
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http://logic.ly/demo/ |
Blah, this is a toy. Written in Flash. No serious simulator can be written in Flash. :D
It doesn't simulate signal propagation (timing), so it is pretty useless for processor design. Well, even minecraft has this. :D
Wait till the end of the year, if all goes ok, we shall be releasing the first real web-based digital/analog circuit simulator.
Until then, I think that Falstad's applet might be a good start.
http://falstad.com/circuit/
It is buggy and slow, but much more powerful and closer to reality than logic.ly.
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There's a (proprietary) circuit design program called CircuitWizard that, while imperfect, is fairly good. I used it when I did electronics at school. I was going to make a free clone called WireMage but I never got round to it...
Note to self (and all who are interested in damning them selves the same way I have) Minecraft chokes when one implements just one edge triggered RS Flip Flop
There's a (proprietary) circuit design program called CircuitWizard that, while imperfect, is fairly good. |
From the feature list it looks nice, until I encountered this note at the bottom of the page:
"User-created components are for design only and will not simulate."
WTF? And they call it a professional edition?
Alright so I finished my ALU. I've built it so that it can be extended by a CPU and storage (and has to be to preform any non trivial operations)
As of right now it can, in one cycle, preform addition, subtraction, bitwise and, bitwise or, as well as bitwise negation.
Today I will begin drawing up the circuit diagrams for a simple 16 bit processor with 32 pages of 16 bit addressable Sequential Access Memory. So that I can do more the ALU. I know it would have been faster and easier to just build a fully functioning ALU, but where's the fun in that? With this I can program it :D
the programs I will write will be more advanced math functions then the bare basics. Like xor, xand, nand, nor, as well as multiplication, division, and exponential. I figure if i don't get bored and my comp sci buddies are willing to help me I'll get done with this in september. And if anyone is interested I will post the save and the circuit diagrams of it all so that those more skilled may make the improvements that it will inevitably need.
I'm very lucky to have friends who have already taken the advanced circuitry based Comp sci class, and very grateful for my knowledge of hardware...also I'll stop rambling now, I'm pretty sure no one want's to hear of my updates on my projects :P
As of right now it can, in one cycle, preform addition, subtraction, bitwise and, bitwise or, as well as bitwise negation.
Today I will begin drawing up the circuit diagrams for a simple 16 bit processor with 32 pages of 16 bit addressable Sequential Access Memory. So that I can do more the ALU. I know it would have been faster and easier to just build a fully functioning ALU, but where's the fun in that? With this I can program it :D
the programs I will write will be more advanced math functions then the bare basics. Like xor, xand, nand, nor, as well as multiplication, division, and exponential. I figure if i don't get bored and my comp sci buddies are willing to help me I'll get done with this in september. And if anyone is interested I will post the save and the circuit diagrams of it all so that those more skilled may make the improvements that it will inevitably need.
I'm very lucky to have friends who have already taken the advanced circuitry based Comp sci class, and very grateful for my knowledge of hardware...also I'll stop rambling now, I'm pretty sure no one want's to hear of my updates on my projects :P
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I didn't know that other programmers here liked hardware design. Seraphimsan, you can keep talking! Would you care to e-mail me your designs? I want to see them!
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Sure! As soon as I get the whole thing put together I'm going to make a PDF of all the separate circuit diagrams together. If you are still here when I'm finished I would be glad to share it with you.
and once I clean up the current diagrams (all of them are scribbled on sheets of paper with a massive amount of others) I'll post some separate ones.
and once I clean up the current diagrams (all of them are scribbled on sheets of paper with a massive amount of others) I'll post some separate ones.
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I just wanted to say that your mention of Minecraft has sucked the last couple of days off my life. All I remember is googling "minecraft" and then it's all a blur of blocks and digging and evil skeletons and building stuff. Thank you very much.
You are very welcome :D
Oh and i've decided the first thing I'm going to do when this is done is write a virus in it, it will be called the creeper virus...it will be a fork bomb... GET IT!?!?!?
Oh and i've decided the first thing I'm going to do when this is done is write a virus in it, it will be called the creeper virus...it will be a fork bomb... GET IT!?!?!?
Awesome :)
Stupid creepers ruined the front of my main house twice, even with a cactus "fence".
Stupid creepers ruined the front of my main house twice, even with a cactus "fence".
What I did was have it set so that if they walk on the premises while I have the security turned on it initiates a lock down and they can't get passed the first wall.
Edit:
Incidentally, a 16 to 1 DEMUX (demultiplexer) is THE most obnoxious thing I've ever had to build in any circuit. It was hell on paper, I don't think I'm ready for it in minecraft.
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Erm that should be MUX (multiplexer)
Edit:
Incidentally, a 16 to 1 DEMUX (demultiplexer) is THE most obnoxious thing I've ever had to build in any circuit. It was hell on paper, I don't think I'm ready for it in minecraft.
edit edit:
Erm that should be MUX (multiplexer)
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