[HN Gopher] Building and programming a 16-bit Intel x86 breadboa...
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       Building and programming a 16-bit Intel x86 breadboard computer
       [video]
        
       Author : surprisetalk
       Score  : 51 points
       Date   : 2023-10-30 14:06 UTC (1 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.youtube.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.youtube.com)
        
       | Koshkin wrote:
       | A very cool series, well presented. Incidentally, a search for
       | 8088 on eBay also turns up curious new laptops with this CPU
       | inside.
        
         | sho_hn wrote:
         | LGR reviewed one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bODiZ5bP84
        
       | myth_drannon wrote:
       | Does anyone still produces 8088?
        
         | Koshkin wrote:
         | Renesas
        
           | myth_drannon wrote:
           | 53$ - a bit expensive but still cool you can buy 8088
           | compatable 40 years later.
        
           | kjs3 wrote:
           | Didn't realize they still made them. That's a tortured
           | license road: Intel->Intersil->Harris->Intersil part
           | deux->Renesas.
        
         | kjs3 wrote:
         | Rochester Electronics (REI) does. They're in the product
         | lifespan extension space and are licensed by the big guys
         | (Intel, AMD, etc) to produce popular products after the OEM has
         | moved on to newer stuff, usually to satisfy contract
         | obligations (e.g. "Must provide 20 years of spare parts", often
         | for military apps). They aren't cheap.
         | 
         | Innovasic used to, but I dunno what they're up to since Analog
         | Devices picked them up. Similar biz plan to REI.
         | 
         | There's probably an embedded ASIC being sold someplace that
         | incorporates an 8086/8088 somewhere deep down. You probably
         | won't find '8086' mentioned in the datasheet, nor will you
         | likely have heard of the company.
         | 
         | These days there are numerous synthesizeable models you can
         | cram into an FPGA. And there's still bins full of NOS chips
         | around.
        
       | mati365 wrote:
       | Recently I made C compiler for such old CPUs.
       | 
       | GH: https://github.com/Mati365/ts-c-compiler
        
         | Koshkin wrote:
         | Interesting. It would have been nice if it could be _used_ on
         | "80286 (and newer)" :)
        
           | mati365 wrote:
           | Agh yes, but it is quite hard to run node on such old CPUs
        
       | kjs3 wrote:
       | This is nifty. Well done.
       | 
       | There's a book called 'The 8088 Project Book' that takes you
       | step-by-step through building an 8088 breadboard computer
       | starting focusing on a 'get the minimum working, then add to it'
       | approach (I guess we call that MVP now). I enjoyed
       | building/learning that one; it's maybe one of the few Tab books
       | that wasn't rubbish.
       | 
       | There's a similar breadboard computer video that builds on an
       | mc68008.
        
       | deepspace wrote:
       | I am glad to see that they finally moved the project to PCB, but,
       | man, is breadboard ever a terrible platform for microprocessor
       | development.
       | 
       | Doesn't anybody do wirewrap anymore? I, too, struggled with bad
       | connections and crosstalk in my breadboard projects in my first
       | and second year at university, and then I discovered wirewrap,
       | and never looked back.
       | 
       | Apart from having to think in reverse, wirewrap is almost as easy
       | as breadboarding (arguably easier when things get crowded), and
       | it is robust enough to be used for production projects.
        
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       (page generated 2023-10-31 23:01 UTC)