[HN Gopher] Microprocessor Board Plans for Old School CPUs: 6502...
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       Microprocessor Board Plans for Old School CPUs: 6502, Z80, 6809,
       etc.
        
       Author : vertnerd
       Score  : 68 points
       Date   : 2022-03-18 12:28 UTC (10 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.kswichit.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.kswichit.com)
        
       | shdon wrote:
       | Is that URL working for people? I get an NXDOMAIN result.
        
         | ______-_-______ wrote:
         | Worked for me just now. You can also see it archived:
         | https://archive.is/IPfVP
        
           | shdon wrote:
           | Hm, since that link didn't work for me either, I switched my
           | DNS from Cloudflare's 1.1.1.1 to Google's 8.8.8.8 and that
           | allowed me to view the page. Some weirdness going on there.
        
             | runnerup wrote:
             | CEO of Cloudflare addressed this here:
             | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19828317
        
         | jwr wrote:
         | Same here. Cloudflare DNS doesn't seem to resolve it.
        
           | runnerup wrote:
           | CEO of cloudflare addressed this:
           | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19828317
        
       | vertnerd wrote:
       | I purchased five of his 6502 boards, assembled, to teach some
       | programming classes and they have been wonderful. I only just
       | stumbled on this full list of his work today and was blown away
       | by how much he has done and I'm incredibly grateful that he has
       | shared it with the world. If you get a chance to purchase
       | something from him or use his designs I promise you won't be
       | disappointed.
        
       | naikrovek wrote:
       | I built the 8086 kit from him mid-2020, and it was a simple
       | enough kit to put together.
       | 
       | I had intended to use it to learn x86 assembly, and I did, but
       | due to who I am as a person I got distracted by another project
       | and moved on. I did learn some assembly and I think a skilled
       | person could make any of these boards do useful work, though
       | probably not very power-efficient work.
        
       | krallja wrote:
       | I will occasionally see a (constructed) one of these kits pop up
       | on eBay for $100+. Has anyone here bought or built one? Where did
       | you get the parts?
        
         | vertnerd wrote:
         | If the vendor is kswichit then I believe it is produced by
         | Wichit Sirichote himself. I purchased a 6502 constructed board
         | on eBay a couple of years ago, then followed up by purchasing
         | four more directly from Sirichote himself. I used the boards to
         | teach a series of short, introductory courses in CPU
         | architecture and programming and the boards have worked
         | flawlessly. I was prompted to post the link today when I
         | realized what a saint the guy is and how he needs more
         | recognition.
        
         | cguess wrote:
         | If you want to build your own 6502 this is a great kit with
         | amazing tutorials. He sells all the parts, but you can also
         | source your own from Adafruit or whatever easily
         | https://eater.net/6502
        
           | krallja wrote:
           | Ben Eater kickstarted this whole hobby into my brain! I'm
           | (hopefully) starting a 68010 breadboard computer this summer;
           | already have the parts, just need to find the time.
           | 
           | Another fun (soldering) kit-maker is Lee Hart at sunrise-
           | ev.com. His kits are always surprising in their cleverness
           | yet understandability. Almost all of them have a 9600 baud
           | serial port, yet no ACIA/UART in sight!
        
           | Teknoman117 wrote:
           | One of the big things about Ben Eater's kits is that all the
           | parts he uses in his videos are still in production.
           | 
           | Other CPUs from that era are super interesting (Motorola
           | 6800, 6809, the 68000, etc., Intel 8086, etc.), but they are
           | no longer produced, so building systems requires sourcing
           | new-old-stock or e-waste pulls from places like eBay,
           | AliExpress, utsource, and so on. Eventually there will be no
           | more of them.
           | 
           | I believe the only CPUs from that era still being
           | manufactured are modern CMOS variants of the Z80, 6502, and
           | 65816. Their clock rates are 10-20x what they were in the
           | late 70's / early 80's.
        
             | krallja wrote:
             | 68K's are still produced by Rochester Electronics; they are
             | still used in some embedded systems (allegedly automotive
             | systems?), which is good news for kit builders!
        
               | Teknoman117 wrote:
               | I'd never bumped into them before, interesting.
               | 
               | Are you referring to this:
               | https://www.rocelec.com/news/motorola-6800 ?
        
         | tyingq wrote:
         | Tindie.com is also a good source for some of these, sometimes
         | with parts included.
        
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       (page generated 2022-03-18 23:01 UTC)