My 8-Bit Computer - WALDO
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This project began with a book in the library and soon became and obsession. The library had purchased an excellent book on computer engineering – Digital Computer Electronics by Malvino, and I decided to read it. I soon realized just how complicated a computer can be and decided to make a mind-map of a simple processor. From the mind-map I decided to draw out an adder, then an encoder and before I knew it, I had drawn out an entire 8-bit computer in just IC’s.
This project is still ongoing, and I have managed to build the decoder to display the outputs out our calculations. Though this encoder will be replaced by an EEPROM in WALDO, I decided to try my hand at making it using just logic gates.
My very first computer was born in an ALDO shoebox and my class thought it only right to name the machine, WALDO.